


Direct thee to Peace

by Umei_no_Mai



Series: The Compass Points North [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Death from Old Age, Domestic Fluff, Erotic Haiku, F/M, Fix-It, Hashirama counts as a minor character in this, Historic Dubcon Discussed, Konohagakure | Hidden Leaf Village, Married Life, Minor Character Death, No Aliens, Politics, Trauma Flashback, Variously Queer Characters, Warring States Period (Naruto), Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 220,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27539131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umei_no_Mai/pseuds/Umei_no_Mai
Summary: Peace is harder than it sounds; it has to be built, with words and promises and trust and compromise, and then maintained with dedication. Not everything survives the change, but there are new joys and treasures to be found as well.Also on ffnet.
Relationships: Senju Tobirama & Original Female Character(s), Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Madara/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Compass Points North [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007121
Comments: 103
Kudos: 481
Collections: Intriguingly Excellent Fics, Nice fics tbh, Stupid Fuking Good Fics





	1. Chapter 1

Over the three weeks of the hostage exchange, Kita spent several hours most days listening to Madara work out the terms he wanted for a comprehensive formal treaty with the Senju, regularly asking him questions and reminding her husband of the importance of making all the details explicit. After her discussion with Tobirama on Uchiha chakra culture Madara went over the entire document again, almost doubling its length with all the fine details an Uchiha would take for granted but a Senju might not.

Who is responsible for resolving interpersonal disputes. What support is available to widows, orphans, the crippled or the elderly and who is responsible for providing it. How much arable land must be attached to a residential property depending on its size and the number of residents. The duties a craftsman has towards his apprentices, regardless of whether or not they are his children. Parental rights, the conditions under which they are forfeited, and to whom they default in such cases.

The one thing her husband goes over repeatedly is the section of the treaty proposal containing the age limits for learning external chakra manipulation, combat-orientated chakra techniques, weapons training and the age limit for taking shinobi missions. Kita watches him _agonise_ over those demands, refining the language here and there in between scrapping entire sections and rewriting them.

Then there are all the details of the prospective village, from the planned sewer layout and road grid pattern on translucent washi that can be overlaid on a sturdier topographical map of the intended area to the rules for keeping certain craft workshops within a specified distance of the river banks and ensuring the smiths will keep their forges downwind of the village centre.

There's not much in terms of actual buildings laid out in the treaty for the village; Madara recognises that people need to decide for themselves when they want to move in, so it's more a matter of laying down ground rules and making sure people follow them _as_ they move in. Everyone adds their own personal touches to a building to turn it into a home, so the rules are mainly about ensuring the fire risk is kept minimal, preventing diseases and illnesses fostered by improperly managed waste and covering what counts as refuse and how it has to be disposed of.

Now however Izuna is home again and it has been determined that there _will_ be a treaty made, so Madara has to go over those terms that will affect the inner workings of the clan with the Homeguard Head and the elders. As this treaty is significantly more involved than a simple promise not to attack one-another, there is a _lot_ to discuss. Kita spends a week refining the hands-off seal and working on a patchwork coat for Midori, since her little sister is the heir of the Toyotama lineage now, in between reading more Toyotama Mangekyō scrolls, having polite discussions with Echigo-oji, her former lineage head, and rather sharper arguments with Grandma over the treaty.

Grandma has replaced Granny Fuji as the Toyotama elder –no lineage has more than one each now, there simply aren't enough adults and the Kōjin lineage is represented by a proxy– and she brings her perspective as a craftswoman and the daughter of an out-clan man to the table. She is fully in agreement with some of Madara's peace terms, arguing vehemently for them, and fiercely opposed to others. Such as the clause allowing craftspeople to take on out-clan apprentices; after two days of debate and negotiation Madara does rework that one, classing certain crafts and techniques as 'clan secrets' and therefore not open to outsiders.

Grandma's weaving is of course not covered, but the patchwork coats are; as are their charcoal, ink, steel, lacquered armour and wire. Of the other crafts only the chakra techniques involved as classed officially as 'hiden'; the shuriken and blades themselves are after all made in much the same way as civilian ones, just as the pottery is.

There is an attempt to class Kita's chakra-spinning as a secret clan technique, but she makes it clear that it is a personal skill relating to her seal work rather than a clan specialty. She knows very well that Tobirama will not have kept quiet about her embroidered seals and she would much rather teach others the discipline than have to put up with the hassle and peril of espionage and sabotage attempts. It's not exactly rocket science after all, any more than seeding ink with blood to improve chakra conductivity.

She's also a little wickedly curious whether Tobirama will be interested enough in a new sealing medium to learn how to embroider. The idea amuses her greatly.

As far as her Mangekyō goes… she will learn to use it, then she will set it aside. Only when her eyesight starts to fail will she need to contemplate the possibility of transplants, and until then it is a moot point. She's not a battlefield shinobi like her husband is; she is not even a shinobi at all. She will not be using her Mangekyō on a regular basis –or at all, most likely– so deterioration is unlikely to be an issue for some time, especially with Yori supervising her training sessions and healing the damage before it can set in.

The lineage scrolls are surprisingly numerous and very detailed. Kita learns that there have only been three Toyotama with the Mangekyō before her, and that only one of them ever joined the Outguard. He –the only man– had a relatively short lifespan, but the other two lived well into their seventies. The benefits of being a woman and a mother, evidently; it's easier to live longer when you are not expected to take missions or fight on the battlefield.

Apparently the wani transformation she experienced is an incomplete manifestation of the Mangekyō technique: its size reflects her spiritual maturity, so will grow further as she ages, but if she transforms while drawing on Yin chakra rather than simply allowing the change to take her, she will achieve the complete dragon transformation and then be able to carry out smaller, partial changes. Such as claws, steel skin or teeth; a tail is also possible. It is a defensive manifestation; the lineage has other named techniques –just as the Amaterasu have not just their titular fire but also Tsukuyomi and Susano-o– but this is where she must start.

Her ancestor Ibuki who was in the Outguard was the one to most fully explore the possibilities granted by partial changes; his notes are in small, neat kanji on long scrolls, clearly a compilation added to regularly once he was sure of each aspect he had discovered. Ibuki was in fact the one to discover the true strength of Toyotama-hime's defence after being impaled through the middle by a long-ago mokuton user: forcing the transformation into or out of dragon form allows the wielder to regenerate from injuries. It's clearly an expensive technique in terms of chakra and eye damage –Ibuki notes that his vision deteriorated noticeably afterwards– but he survived that battle. Despite losing most of the contents of his abdomen and a chunk of his spine to a wooden spear a hand-span across.

Kita makes a note of the mental focus required and tucks it away in the back of her mind. She's not dealt with many assassination attempts yet, but when this alliance goes through that is likely to change. The Uchiha and Senju clans are the most powerful in Fire Country and indeed the surrounding nations as well, but as they are constantly at each-other's throats the only person with any power who cares what they're getting up to is the daimyo, because the conflict undermines his authority and the collateral damage to the landscape reduces the tax revenue arriving in his coffers. The Uchiha and Senju bound in alliance such as Hashirama and Madara both want though… then they will be a force to be reckoned with on an _international_ scale. The Fire Daimyo will be pleased, but the other daimyo will likely be wary.

Which is why focusing on trade and demilitarising is so _essential_ if they want peace to last. It still might not last anyway, but this way they are minimising the risk by seeming less of a threat to other shinobi clans, so they won't feel obliged to join the village just so as to avoid getting squished by the combined might of the Uchiha and Senju.

* * *

A week after Izuna's return Madara has got the clan's elders and lineage heads on board with his slightly revised treaty proposal. That unfortunately leaves him with a week to stress about the details before they are due at the Akimichi compound, which he does his best to distract himself from in various ways.

He takes his hawks out for flights several days running. He spars with Izuna, which is rather more exiting now they both have their vision fully restored. He trains Sakurajima and Sahoro with Izuna and Hikaku's help. He has Kita explain the hands-off seal to him in greater detail, as well as the particulars of her chakra binding seal, which turns out not to be a binding seal at all. He also allows himself to be sworn to secrecy on that particular detail; Kita's right that it's best _not_ to let it slip out. People would get _ideas_. It's not a seal that will be discussed or traded like her more practical domestic seals; there are others they will also be keeping secret, like the temperature regulation seals they use on the kilns, so as to preserve their advantage on the ceramics market.

He also spends time playing with the girls and doing a bit more ink painting, as well as having a bit of fun decorating various ceramic pieces in time for the next round of firing the kiln. It's been a while since he had so much free time and treaty or not, it's probably going to be a long time before he gets this much again.

Madara makes a point of carving out several hours a day for Kita and keeping his evenings free. Sitting with her as she finishes quilting Sakurajima's coat in between working on the patchwork design for Midori's, quietly talking about clan things and her hopes for the future, is all really restful.

Their evenings after the girls are in bed are a little less restful, but the exertion is part of the fun. Madara cannot deny that he _really_ enjoys being married. Training with his wife is also incredibly exhilarating: she's making great progress with her Mangekyō and Yori is managing to keep the swelling and deterioration to the absolute minimum between practice sessions. Madara is just glad that it didn't take Kita very long to work out how to stay clothed while shifting between forms, even if neither of them has a clue how that works; Yori has no clue how that works either. Madara doesn't care _how_ , he's relieved he no longer has to worry about people seeing his wife in a state of undress, so she now can train alongside the others he is tutoring in their Mangekyō techniques. She still has to practice outside –the transformation is _not_ small– but at least modesty is preserved.

Then the respite is over and it is time to travel to the Akimichi with the planned entourage to negotiate with the Senju for peace. Madara is just glad that the elders agreed that the actual negotiation process was purely an Outguard matter; the only person not part of the Outguard that he is taking is Kita, and that's because she's been as much a part of arranging the terms as he has and he wants her opinions on the Senju's counter-offers without having to wait for letters to be exchanged.

He's also taking Hikaku, because Hikaku is diplomatic, and his two new Mangekyō-wielding subordinates because their training is his responsibility; that it also provides a cover for teaching Kita is a bonus. They all need that training, their eyesight depends on it and he refuses to neglect it; he's sure Akimichi Chōtai will be willing to grant them usage of a discreet practice field.

Of course, this being a full formal diplomatic negotiation with a formerly-enemy party there is going to be a lot of gift exchanges and probably the expectation of a further hostage exchange as well. Generally speaking, in these situations the 'hostages' are women granted in marriage to high-ranking clan members, but the Uchiha do not give away brides. Not ever. The historical records Kita has somehow charmed out of Murasaki-sama indicate the Senju have only ever exchanged brides with the Uzumaki, so at least there will be no expectations there either; however some kind of hostage exchange must nonetheless be carried out.

Madara is loath to entrust a child to Hashirama for fostering; Izuna's description of his friend's negligence of his son is less than promising. A high-ranking warrior though? A lineage head? That shows trust while also ensuring his hostage will be able to defend themselves if necessary.

It's going to have to be Hikaku, isn't it. He can't exactly offer any of his other Mangekyō wielders –Oshiki is young and angry while Sahoro and Sakurajima are not yet fully trained– as the Senju wouldn't understand why he was offering a young orphan not closely related to him and take it as an insult.

Hikaku meanwhile is his first cousin, in line to lead the clan after Izuna, his most trusted in the Outguard and well-known to the Senju already from the battlefield. He is also temperate, thoughtful and has long since moved past hating the other clan unthinkingly.

More pragmatically, Yori is due to give birth in less than three months so even if things fall through in the worst possible way, his line will not end with him. Hijiri is courting, so will likely marry soon and further stabilise the Yatagarasu lineage, and Hidaka is there too; he even has all the training Hijiri doesn't.

Madara hates these decisions, but as Outguard Head he has to make them. He suspects Hashirama –or more realistically Tobirama– is currently agonising over the same choices. The Uchiha clan will probably get the woman who is Tobirama's second; Izuna mentioned her name was Tōka. Respective clan thirds is not so bad an exchange, all things considered; high enough to know what is at stake and have political training, but not so high the clan would fall apart without them. It shows commitment and they can be exchanged back again once the shared outpost has been up and running for a while. Maybe in six months? Or at least agree to revisit the arrangement after six months, yes that would be enough. It would take them to New Year or thereabouts, which would be a good time for renewing commitments and so on.

Thankfully, being Outguard Head means he can make Kita's new and improved hands-off seals a condition of joining, so all his warriors are now protected from the crudest means of bloodline theft. The Senju have not stooped so low in centuries –not even Butsuma went so far, taking the lesson from history of what had been done to the Senju who _had_ – but others are less scrupulous, especially the smaller clans encountered infrequently on missions to more distant nations. To them the Uchiha are not a present threat, merely an opportunity for advancement in their own local skirmishes and wars.

It comforts Madara to know that he will never again be sent out on a hunting mission after a clansman is brought home missing one or both eyes, either alive or as a desecrated corpse. He has done so only twice, once to Water and once to Lightning, and made a point of inflicting considerable collateral damage both times. Now at least his warriors are safe from that violence, if not from the wiles of women hoping to steal their bloodline in more subtle ways.

There is a reason that it is Uchiha women who are encouraged to bring husbands into the clan, not the other way around; a woman cannot have her unborn stolen from her save by death.

Speaking of, Madara has to wonder if Kita can prevent other kinds of bloodline theft with seals too. Something to ask her about later, once the treaty is settled and she's fully trained in using her Mangekyō. All the changes of the past weeks have unsettled her and she's a little sharper than usual from the stress.

He sets aside the scrolls he intends to take –in case he has to wave them in Hashirama's face to back up certain treaty points– and heads out to make tea. A drink and a pause in the packing will help his wife find her balance and calm herself. She's not pleased to have to leave the twins with Izuna while they're visiting the Akimichi, but they can't exactly bring the girls with them. It wouldn't be safe.

She's right though; leaving them behind when they might be away for a month or more is far from ideal. But if they get peace, lasting peace, it will be worth it. Even if it only lasts a few years; peace made once is easier to re-establish.

Now if only he had been able to come up with a suitable argument to _not_ wear sokutai. Then again, he'll only have to wear it for the initial formal introductions and Kita will at least be suffering alongside him in jūnihitoe. After that he'll be able to go back to formal hitatare. Kita of course will be in variously formal kimono –plus the uchikake she wore on their wedding day– and Hikaku and the others will be able to get away with formal hitatare throughout, not being part of the negotiations save as witnesses. The clan's widows have been working hard to attire everybody appropriately, so the entire delegation will be dressed as befitting the Uchiha's station.

Diplomatic negotiations are unfortunately too formal for a nobleman of his rank to just wear hitatare or kimono and hakama; the Uchiha clan predates the formation of Fire Country and are technically of a similar rank to the daimyo's family as an old imperial lineage, so have to dress accordingly for formal audiences and diplomatic ventures. They are kuge, not bushi as the Akimichi are, and that carries with it certain responsibilities and duties along with the associated privileges.

Privileges such as only being taxed on the silk that they _sell_ , not all they make for their own use, but the duty to dress the part. Hence the awkward but at least newly-made many-layered court robes he will be practicing in shortly; being fourth-rank means the robe is black, and being a recognised military leader lets him wear split panels for easier movement.

He'll take it, honestly.

* * *

Tobirama slumps at his desk as Tōka kindly makes a pot of tea. This may well be the peace treaty Hashirama has been daydreaming of since he was eleven, but that doesn't mean his brother has been doing all that much to _prepare_ for it. Yes, his brother _does_ know how to write every possible kind of peace treaty that the clan archive offers examples of –which he's grateful for– but they've never actually _had_ a treaty with the Uchiha before. Not a proper formal one. Well, not since that time about five hundred years ago when a Senju Clan Head very foolishly decided to stoop to bloodline theft; that was less of a treaty and more of a 'please don't massacre us all we didn't know he was _this_ crazy' pitched by the scattered survivors of the Uchiha-Hyūga-Inuzuka alliance that swiftly crushed the idiot like the wrath of a vengeful kami, wiping out three-quarters of the clan in the process.

Suffice it to say that the Senju have emphasised the taboo of bloodline theft ever since.

That is unfortunately the only formal treaty example they _have_ though, so Tobirama has been reading it and re-reading it in search of guidance. He's one of maybe four people in the clan who can read archaic characters –his Uzumaki grandmother is the only other one he would trust to give him an accurate rendition of meaning– and some of the terminology is rather obscure. In that he's not entirely sure what all these poetic titles and allusions _mean_.

Hashirama's read this one –well, he listened attentively when Tobirama read it to him and made up a copy in modern characters and katakana– but it's the fine details of precedence and address that interest him right now. Because yes, that the Uchiha were unquestionably victorious –if unexpectedly gracious in victory– on that occasion does go a way to excusing some of the florid poetry, but not all of it. And that the only Senju left to lead the clan was the very late Head's youngest niece does partly explain why her titles are so few in comparison, but when taking into account the titles accorded the Hyūga –very similar to the Uchiha– and Inuzuka –mostly praising their loyalty and strength but no mention of nobility at all– the picture painted is somewhat different. It implies a significant difference in social status between the Senju and Uchiha clans and Tobirama is concerned.

Comparing this treaty with what few contemporary documents the Senju have, there's a similar theme in the address granted the daimyo of the time –who was one of the early ones, as Fire Country was newly-established then and far smaller yet also considerably more warlike– and that directed at the Uchiha Head in this document. Which might be triumphal hyperbole, but also may not; it's not like the Senju know anything about the history of their rival clan. They've been fighting one-another for longer than they have records for and clearly nobody has ever cared to clarify _why_.

Tobirama knows the Hyūga are an old noble clan, old enough that they were rulers of the part of Fire Country they still live in today until they gracefully surrendered civil governance to the Fire Daimyo in return for being permitted to continue to live there and practice their traditional lifestyle unhindered. Daimyo's daughters have married into the Hyūga, and daughters lacking their bloodline have married back out to daimyo's sons. Not recently, but it has happened. And still, that the Hyūga are implied to be less noble than the Uchiha in whatever measure is used to determine such things has unfortunate implications.

Which means that it is entirely possible that this treaty negotiation is going to be the kind of courtly-formal that Hashirama regularly fails to recognise as something he has to participate in and respect; Tobirama really hopes it isn't. Honestly, Tobirama's been _grateful_ for the ongoing war, as it's meant his brother is not required to go to the capital and address the daimyo. Yes, for some reason the ruler of Fire has thus far seemed to find Hashirama's cheerful protocol violations _amusing_ , but that's not something the clan can rely on to continue now that his brother is their clan head. Heirs get more leeway, but Heads are assumed to know better so the insult would be significant.

There's nothing he can do about all this at this juncture save hope for the best; they are due at the Akimichi holdings in two days' time and Tobirama just has to pray that Madara is serious enough about peace to overlook the inevitable foot-in-mouth Hashirama is going to commit. He's not even sure his brother really _listened_ to him when he was explaining about the differences in the healing the Uchiha have available or the civilian casualties the Senju have caused; yes, Hashirama looked serious and agreed to add the offer of medical training in the treaty, but Tobirama doesn't get the impression his brother has taken the details to heart as he should.

For all his grand idealism, Hashirama has never been particularly imaginative or empathetic where individuals are concerned.

He wishes he could be sure that his brother has fully considered all the _specifics_ of peace though. Yes, his brother _has_ talked about a lot of points he wants to include in a treaty on various occasions, but Tobirama _still_ doesn't know which of those Hashirama considers most important or what Madara considers most important, or whether their ideas are going to mesh well. Negotions could drag on extensively depending on points raised and there is always the option of it ending poorly.

However this goes, he just wants it to _not_ end in insults and bloodshed. Which right now still seems all too likely, unfortunately.

"Drink some tea," Tōka urges him firmly, "and stop pulling on your hair; it won't make things any better."

"I just wish Anija was a bit more forthcoming about the treaty specifics," Tobirama grumbles, picking up his teacup and sipping it; it's perfect. Tōka makes excellent tea when she wants to. "Usually he's all too willing to have me do the drafting, so what's so different this time?" His brother has insisted on doing _all_ the writing himself; Hashirama won't even _tell_ him what's going in there! They're going to be defending their demands in a few days and Tobirama doesn't even know what all of them _are_! He's going to have to read it over after they arrive, without any reference documents because Hashirama will probably forget to pack any! Even Mito's not entirely sure of what's in there, although she has coaxed a few details out of her husband; nothing that offers a clear indication of what documents to bring though, for all that he appreciates her efforts. She's worried about this as well.

"Well it's _his_ dream, isn't it?" Tōka points out wryly, settling opposite him with her own teacup. "Of course he wants to make sure all the things he wants to happen are included."

"Up until the fiddly detail work gets too boring for words," Tobirama mutters irritably, then shakes his head. "Don't mind me; I haven't been sleeping well." He's had uneasy dreams ever since returning, which is a bit odd when his sleep in the Uchiha compound was utterly restful. Yes, the dreams were a trifle strange at times, but he never had a single nightmare or even woke up in a cold sweat due to flashbacks.

Come to think of it, those three weeks were the best sleep he's had in _years_. That's possibly a little suspect.

Are there seals for peaceful sleep? He'll have to ask Mito. How would you even go about _designing_ such a seal, anyway?

Those questions may have to wait until after the treaty as well; at least his discussions with Yuta-oba and Baasan have clarified the value of his coat –not counting the seals stitched invisibly in its lining– and his grandmother has assisted him in selecting an appropriately valuable gift to offer Kita in return for her generosity. The Uzumaki deal with the nobility more often than the Senju do so she has the experience to make such choices, despite being less certain on the appropriate protocol for negotiations beyond 'as formal as meeting the daimyo,' which is not particularly helpful.

It is not a bought gift –she did not _buy_ the coat after all– but a minor clan heirloom that Kita will hopefully appreciate. His grandmother assures him it is not inappropriate for him to gift to another Clan Head's wife, as technically the gift is on the Senju clan's behalf, in thanks for the consideration and hospitality shown to him while in her power.

Tobirama still isn't quite sure what to do about the uneasy awareness of having caused her father's death. It's not something he can offer compensation for, not without opening the Senju to crippling financial reparations for _all_ the civilian lives they have ended, but he still wishes to make sure Kita is aware of his culpability. He will not have her grace to him be founded on ignorance; she deserves to know and to have the freedom to speak and act accordingly. He owes her his life –a debt he cannot hope to repay– and it sits uncomfortably with the knowledge of his responsibility for her loss.

He is yet to mention her sharingan variant or the seals in his coat to anybody; if they _do_ succeed in making peace then the knowledge is meaningless, and if they do _not_ he can inform his clansmen later. It is not as though the information would change anything about the treaty his brother is drafting.

* * *

Her monthly bleeding is late. It was due around the time of Izuna's return, and Kita honestly expected it then what with her short temper concerning the murder attempt and the discovery of her Mangekyō, but it did not arrive. Not then and nearly two weeks later it is still not in evidence.

Her cycle has always been very regular, save the few months following her mother's death, so Kita doubts the delay is stress-related; that has always brought the bleeding forwards rather than pushing it back. No: she is pregnant. Conception must have been within a day or so of Izuna's injury, meaning she is now almost five weeks pregnant. Well, six weeks counting from the end of her last cycle.

It doesn't quite feel _real_ yet. The only clear indication of the change is the halting of her monthly bleeding, which her husband has either not noticed or assumes he has missed with how busy he was in the immediate aftermath of Izuna's safe return.

Kita isn't sure she wants to share the news yet. She may yet miscarry –although she has taken the time to unpick the seals from her nightwear and the clothing she is taking with her for the negotiations– and she would prefer to spare Madara the disappointment if her body rejects the foetus before the end of the third month.

Chakra-wise, Tobirama may notice the change in her signature during the negotiations, but then again he also may _not_ as she has in fact been pregnant throughout the past three weeks of increasingly close acquaintance. He may even overlook it entirely until her body makes the shift at the beginning of the fourth month, pooling her chakra around her womb to protect and nourish the baby as her abdomen begins to swell.

Children do not develop their own chakra until a week or so after they are born, which is part of why shinobi culture –or at least Uchiha culture– doesn't recognise a child as a separate person until then; the Uchiha only enter a child's name in the shrine records after two weeks of life. Until they are truly independent from their mother and have the chakra to prove it, unborn and infant are both considered an extension of their mother's body, a vessel that is yet to be filled by a soul of its own.

Kita wants children. She wants to carry and bear her husband's children, to raise and love them, to discover the adults they will become. However… she is ambivalent on the prospect of _sons._ Madara was the oldest of five boys so sons are likely, and as Outguard Head her husband is expected to have sons and train one of them to succeed him, but…

Kita wants daughters. Girls to teach to spin and stitch, to paint and dye, to read and write and sing and play music, to work wire, throw shuriken or wield naginata. Girls with her husband's warm smile and whimsical sense of humour, little girls her husband can adore and delight in as he does Toshi and Azami. But sons are more likely and it is hardly fair of her to set herself up for disappointment, _especially_ when the child would likely perceive her unhappiness as a personal failing of their own. Any child of her husband's will be a delight regardless of their gender and she _must_ hold to that. She doesn't know her little brothers very well –unfortunately– but she does love them dearly and she got on very well with Hijiri and Hidaka when they were little, so what _is_ her problem with boys?

It comes to her as she entrusts her luggage to Sakurajima and falls in behind her husband with Yōko, Inemi's cousin, at her side as attendant and the party's medical specialist. Yōko-chan is barely fifteen and looks it, but she is intelligent, serious, very capable in pharmacy and skilled at fading into the background. Her chakra control is also excellent: she can already stitch all of Kita's medical seals and is proficient in the Yin medical technique, if only for short stretches of time.

Kita has already sworn the girl to secrecy on her pregnancy and knows that the oath will be kept, but she almost trips over her own feet as her mind finally hands her the missing puzzle piece concerning her reluctance for sons. Puzzle _pieces_ ; her fears are twofold.

"Wife?" Madara asks, glancing over his shoulder as they leave the compound.

"Just an unexpected revelation, husband," she assures him as they pick up speed. He smiles –he probably assumes her distraction is related to a seal project– before focusing on the trees ahead. All six of them are now running full-tilt, having the proper training for it –it is now standard and expected for all Uchiha to learn to run at mission speeds aged thirteen– so it won't take them even half a day to reach Akimichi lands, even with Sahoro and Sakurajima both balancing clothes chests on their shoulders.

Half her attention on following in her husband's footsteps through the leafy woodland, Kita ponders her revelation. Firstly she is afraid of emulating her mother and neglecting Toshi and Azami in favour of a newborn son. Even though she was only home for the first year of Jōnen's life and at that point Mama's behaviour seemed to be her usual focus on a fragile needy infant, Kita only has Mama as her example of how to parent.

She _knows_ she is not her mother, but it is still hard. She can't remember having sons in her previous life –although what she remembers of her actual _life_ is vaguely congruent to her age, so she may simply have married later than in this lifetime– so has no other examples to draw from.

Her other fear is that Madara will emulate _his_ father if presented with a son. Which is _stupid_ –her husband is very different to Tajima-sama in both temperament and behaviour and works hard to _stay_ different– and yet not, because Madara doesn't have any other examples of how to raise sons any more than she does; well, unless she counts Niniji-sama but she doesn't know how much her husband saw of Niniji-sama growing up. Emotionally, her fears make sense.

Logically and practically, Madara's rules on mission readiness for the Outguard and agonised over for the treaty make it very clear he's not going to turn around and hold his own child to a different standard. She has to have faith. Faith in herself, to not neglect her girls in favour of a son, and also to not draw back from a son over something as arbitrary as gender. She _promises_ that she will not allow her child's gender to blind her to their identity as a person.

And she also needs to have faith in her husband, that having a son would prove an opportunity for growth and change for the better. Somehow it's easier to believe in Madara; she's seen him learn to parent her little sisters, doting on Toshi and Azami with an open heart and gentle discipline, so she _knows_ he can do it.

She will tell him of her pregnancy once the treaty is complete, no matter how well or how badly it goes or how much or little time it takes. If she loses the foetus before then, well. Maybe. She will probably need the comfort.

* * *

Tobirama does not look up from either his brother's slapdash treaty or his own notes as six Uchiha chakra signatures, all of them more or less familiar, dart along the road leading to his current position. The Akimichi have already noticed their guests' imminent arrival; the clan head and a number of others are converging on the clan compound's front gates and an ino-shika-chō trio are already advancing at a run towards the border where their lands meet the main road.

Hashirama does not need to know. He would only offend their hosts again. It is bad enough that he insisted on arriving a day early; being early is _worse_ than being late, as your host may not yet be fully prepared to receive you. The Uchiha have made their journey in proper time, arriving an hour after noon of the day indicated as appropriate, so as to leave the Akimichi several hours for appropriate protocol and exchanging gifts without needing to delay a meal to do so.

Unlike the Senju, who arrived right before lunch yesterday morning and delayed the midday meal by over an hour. Not that the Akimichi were anything but gracious and welcoming, but Tobirama knows that his brother's enthusiasm was not as appreciated as it might have been.

Hashirama is currently out in the garden drinking sake and daydreaming, hence Tobirama finally having the space to go over the prospective treaty and fill it out a little. Some of his brother's ideas can most politely be described as _impractical_ , others are very good but lack the required definition and structure to be clearly achievable and others still look deceptively straightforward from a Senju perspective but Tobirama can already tell the Uchiha will _not_ appreciate them; Hashirama building the village himself in minutes, for instance. Hearing from Tōka about Izuna's refusal to even set foot in the buildings Hashirama made, let alone sleep in them, were a timely reminder that the Uchiha would find the constant low-level buzz of his brother's chakra threatening rather than reassuring.

Unfortunately his brother has never been very good at seeing the world from other people's perspectives, so it falls to Tobirama to fill in the gaps and persuade his sibling otherwise. Well, attempt to do so; Hashirama may disregard his advice. Again. At least Tōka was the one left behind to wrangle the clan in their absence; she will keep everyone in line and Mito will support her without question. Tobirama would have liked his cousin's support _here,_ but she's the only other person with the strength and training to lead and the rest of the clan foolishly do not recognise Mito's skills as sufficient.

Tobirama would also have liked _Mito_ to be here, but Hashirama dismissed the idea so while they do have strong warriors with them, nobody else in the Senju party has any appreciation of the politics involved in this kind of negotiation. The Uzumaki have more experience with the protocols for differing ranks and could offer insight into how to adjust levels of formality as necessary, but Hashirama decided against bringing Mito and the Senju clan obeyed.

Going by the feel of the now-familiar Uchiha chakra signatures, Madara has left _his_ brother behind to lead their clan in his absence, but has brought his wife and Tōka's usual opponent –Hikaku, his name is Hikaku and he's Madara's first cousin as well as Yori-san's husband; he came over for dinner a few times while Tobirama was staying with the Uchiha– along with three other less familiar Uchiha. Tobirama is _sure_ he's sensed these specific individuals around the Uchiha compound on multiple occasions during his stay, but can't put faces or names to them; Uchiha really are confoundingly similar in chakra. He can only pick out Kita due to spending three weeks in her company with her seal binding him; Madara's strength is unmistakeable and he's become familiar with Hikaku after a decade of battlefield encounters.

The Uchiha pause for a few minutes upon coming face to face with the trio sent to greet them, then both parties proceed together at a more sedate pace. Meanwhile on the far side of the compound from the Senju guesthouse, frantic last-minute preparations are perceptively underway.

Tobirama continues to feign ignorance of the bustle and focuses on his notes, keeping a careful internal eye on the Head of the Akimichi clan and the leaders of his shinobi vassal clans. This appears to be a far more formal reception than the Senju received. It could be that their early arrival precluded a suitable greeting, but Tobirama suspects otherwise. The Akimichi are a noble clan, being from a distinguished samurai lineage with the daimyo's ear who did not abandon their proficiency with chakra when Fire Country ceased to expand and war with the surrounding nations became a matter of mercenaries and proxy conflicts over trade –which is what most of the Elemental Nations' other bushi families have done, abandoning ninjutsu in the pursuit of wealth– but Tobirama is aware that he knows very little of the intricacies of court precedence or how nobles rank amongst themselves. His father was far more focused on combat and which clans were on good terms with the Senju than the precise rank of those allies, beyond the obvious necessity of suitably respectful address.

Suitably respectful address for the _Uchiha_ has of course never been considered relevant before today.

Hashirama eventually learns of the Uchiha's arrival over dinner, as their meal is hosted by Akimichi Chōkō and his new bride rather than by his father Chōtai-sama. That demotion is in itself suspect; the Akimichi hosting the two negotiating parties separately is not.

Of course his brother overlooks the former point and pouts at the latter. "Tobirama, you should have told me Madara was here! I want to talk to him! This is the first chance I've had for a proper conversation since we were both children!"

"Anija, as our hosts and the intermediaries for this treaty the Akimichi have to follow the approved protocol for such things," Tobirama explains patiently. "Interfering with that would be inappropriate."

"But Madara wouldn't fight me over _dinner_!"

Why must his brother be so thoughtless of consequences? "We want other clans to recognise the validity of this treaty, don't we anija?" Tobirama reminds him. "For that to happen we should follow the formal measures laid out for such things."

Hashirama swiftly subsides. "Of course I want to set an example! That's important!" He beams. "My apologies Akimichi-san! I'm so glad to hear that Madara has arrived!"

Tobirama does his best to keep his cringe internal; their hosts have consistently referred to Madara as 'Uchiha-sama.' Thankfully the Akimichi heir allows his brother's blatant disrespect to slide. This time, at least; once negotiations open that may well change.

* * *

Diplomacy is a slow business, involving lots of bowing and much polite speech. Madara greets Akimichi Chōtai with the appropriate formula that recognises the man's samurai background and connections to the daimyo, and is greeted in return with a long and much more humble formula acknowledging the Uchiha's specific noble rank and historic imperial connections. The empire has been dead and gone for about eight hundred years now, courtesy of the Kyuubi obliterating the capital and sinking it beneath the sea along with the emperor, his entire court and much of the surrounding countryside, but a few of the old noble lines survived the cataclysm and the Uchiha are some of the highest-ranking left; certainly the highest ranking in Fire Country.

Then a gift is offered, refused twice and finally accepted, and the giver urges the recipient to open it. Madara does so then praises the gift, allows his host to make polite disclaimers and hands it –a very fine shogi set carved from deer horn– carefully to Hikaku, so he can offer a gift of his own to his host to express his gratitude for the Akimichi clan's hospitality.

The whole procedure then repeats, but the other way around with additional disclaimers from Akimichi-dono claiming that his home is humble and not at all fit for such prestigious guests, until the other Clan Head has accepted, opened and lavishly praised his gift –a set of porcelain plates that Madara has painted himself– and Madara has made his own deprecating comments on their quality. Then the Uchiha can finally be shown to the Akimichi guesthouse, which involves more polite humility but also sweets and then _finally_ they are left alone to settle in before dinner.

Madara makes tea while Hikaku oversees the men's side of the unpacking and Kita manages the women's side. The Uchiha party being half men and half women means that Hikaku and Sahoro can share a room, Yōko and Sakurajima another and he can sleep with Kita; everybody has a room-mate to watch their back and nobody is too crowded.

Everybody appreciates the tea; Kita then leaves the remnant of the unpacking to Yōko-chan and remains sitting with him, looking out through the shōji at the small but very lovely garden with her cup cradled absently in her hands.

"Well, here we are," she says eventually, tone faintly wondering.

Madara understands completely. He can hardly believe it either. "It's happening," he agrees. "We're making peace with the Senju. Real formal peace, not just an indefinite cease-fire; a treaty with tangible clauses and restitution demanded for violations, which will be witnessed by a third party and copies sent to the daimyo so he can enforce it." It had been a distant dream as a child, a castle in the sky, and here he is _building_ it.

His dream has come a long way in the past fifteen years; hopefully Hashirama won't demand too many modifications to the new details he's bringing to the table, because Madara isn't sure he's prepared to compromise on many of them. He has seeded in a few more daring demands that he _is_ willing to concede on –that is important and part of appearing reasonable– but some of them he will not. He _cannot_. Hashirama will hopefully understand.

Kita shuffles closer and leans her head against his shoulder. "Your thoughts on the Senju delegation?"

Madara hums, thinking back to what Akimichi-dono had said about who Hashirama has brought with him. His brother of course –Tobirama is likely to be heavily involved in the negotiation process– but not Tōka or Mito, which is a little odd; it's considered appropriate to bring women along to diplomatic negotiations, wives especially, to assist in hosting and as a show of commitment and good faith. Well, it might be that Hashirama –or rather Tobirama– has very few people he trusts with the wellbeing of the clan in his absence and that those two are best suited to keeping the Senju's warriors firmly in hand, but still. Surely Hashirama has an aunt or some such still living? Madara's aware of Butsuma's mother having been Uzumaki, so she's probably still alive –Uzumaki longevity is well-known– and would be a perfectly adequate substitute. Better even, being an honoured elder.

The other three Senju are not people Madara knows by name, but that Hikaku will likely recognise when he sees them; his second is more aware of who's who in the upper Senju hierarchy, having fought most of them on various occasions while Madara and Izuna have been preoccupied with countering Hashirama and Tobirama. His familiarity is part of why it is Hikaku who is his second rather than Izuna; Madara needs his deputy to have a more rounded understanding of the Senju forces and the skill-sets of the individuals involved.

It does make Madara wonder who exactly Hashirama has in mind for a hostage exchange though. He has to have _somebody_ in mind, even though at this point in the proceedings such a thing is only a possibility, not a certainty. Does he intend to carry out the exchange later, after terms have been signed?

Has he even _asked_ anybody to agree to it yet? Would he make the effort this time when he hadn't before?

"I suspect that Hashirama has not been paying much attention to his brother where the formalities are concerned," he tells his wife. "Which might be enthusiastic forgetfulness or outright ignorance, but neither is exactly ideal."

"He's going to be rude again, isn't he?" Kita sighs. "Well at least he's honestly committed to peace, so we know he's not _deliberately_ sabotaging the process."

"We'll have to take matters as they come," Madara agrees, "and I'll try not to shout at him during the official negotiation proceedings." Outside of that, over informal tea or sake… well it might make a difference or it might not, but Hashirama does at least _try_ to listen some of the time. So long as Madara is saying things his friend wants to hear.

Hashirama is a terrible friend, but he is at least a profoundly sincere one. He is personally powerful enough that he can afford to be.

"The unfortunate necessity of at least _appearing_ reasonable," his wife commiserates mischievously.

"Are you suggesting I am _not_ reasonable, dearest?"

Kita smirks at him. "I could not _possibly_ criticize my husband in public," she says faux-virtuously, pressing a hand over her heart. "That would be _most_ improper of me."

Madara snorts. He _knows_ he's impetuous; it's a common Uchiha failing, to lead with their hearts rather than their heads. Kita knows he has never tried to conceal this particular flaw; she's just teasing him.

"My wife thinks so poorly of me," he murmurs mournfully, widening his eyes and pouting. "I will never recover."

Kita twitches, lifting her hand to cover the wicked smile spreading across her face; Madara catches the hand and firmly lowers it.

"My wife is beautiful when she smiles," he assures her softly.

The smile softens, as do her eyes; the warmth in them makes his heart flutter. "My husband is also most handsome when he smiles," Kita murmurs, meeting his eyes steadily. "And he blushes _very_ charmingly."

Madara feels his face heat and has to fight not to let his eyes drop; how can she _do_ this to him, even now?! They've been married for over two years and she _still_ sends him all to pieces!

He loses the battle for eye contact, attention falling to the layered neckline of her kimono. It looks slightly different to usual; Madara frowns and smoothes it out, trying to pin down the difference.

"Husband?"

His fingertips tell him what his eyes could not entirely decipher without the sharingan. "You're not wearing seals in your collar," he notes, glancing at her curiously. Has she not had time to add them with how busy they've been? He knows she's had to deal with a lot of new clothing in a very short span of time in preparation for this; several of her older kimono have also been handed on to her younger sisters, so they can dress appropriately for their new station within their lineage.

His wife's skin takes on a faintly rosy tinge and her eyes darken. "No, I'm not," she admits softly. The way she says it… is this deliberate?

"Would my wife be so good as to tell me why?"

Kita takes a very careful breath. "I want to give you a child, husband."

Madara can't breathe. He can't remember how. All he can see is the cautious hope on Kita's face, the _longing_ and–

–she wants this he wants this oh _this_ is what peace means to her–

"I love you." He doesn't even _care_ that he said it out loud, he _means_ it and the way Kita's breath catches as she trembles, eyes wide, say that his words mean the _world_ to her.

"Madara?" It's more a gasp than a question.

"Yes," he tells her, joy burning fiercely in his blood as takes her teacup off her and sets it aside before standing up, lifting her to her feet as he does so. "I would be _honoured_ , beloved. Kita, would you permit me?" Who cares that it's the middle of the afternoon? There're a few hours until dinnertime anyway.

Her answering smile is like the sun rising on a winter's morning, gloriously bright no matter how contained. "Nothing would please me more," she confesses, eyes dropping almost shyly as her chakra quivers in anticipation.

Firmly evicting Yōko from their bedroom is the work of a moment; what little remains of the unpacking can wait until evening.

* * *

The first meeting takes place the following morning; Tobirama has a _really_ _bad_ feeling about it. The Senju are all dressed in matching haori and hakama just the same as when they're visiting the daimyo, but the Akimichi men are wearing formal grey silk kamishimo embroidered with their crest over red kimono and most of them are holding fans. The women present –and there are several– are wearing variously patterned black tomesode, and Chōtai's wife Masu even has on an uchikake, indicating that this event is of the highest possible degree of formality.

The heads of the Nara and Yamanaka clans are sitting behind Chōtai-sama in regular kimono and hakama in their clan colours, complete with multiple crests, but looking nonetheless rather underdressed. Just as the Senju do, except it is _worse_ for the Senju because what they are wearing is nowhere near as fine and their hakama only have their clan crest on the back rather than on the fronts as well and the design is only painted, not embroidered.

Then the double doors at the entrance of the hall are thrown open by two Akimichi in full ceremonial armour. "Announcing Uchiha Madara-sama, Head of the Uchiha Clan, Inner Minister by inheritance to the Emperor, with Uchiha O-Kita-sama his wife, Uchiha Hikaku-sama, Uchiha Sakurajima-sama and Uchiha Sahoro-sama, his generals, and Uchiha Yōko-sama, all of the forth rank of the dōjō kuge!"

Every Akimichi present instantly rises to their feet. Tobirama promptly does likewise, the rest of his clansmen rising with him; he recognises barely _half_ those titles and they fill him with a terrible sense of dread. _Surely_ the Uchiha are not–

The thought dies unfinished as the Uchiha party steps into the room. Madara is wearing layered formal court robes in black, cut for greater mobility, and has his usually wild hair up in a sleek topknot which adds significantly to the impression of acute formality. Kita is wearing jūnihitoe, the many layers visible in her trailing sleeve cuffs and the lower hem of her robes, and carrying a large fan. Flanking the couple a few steps behind are Uchiha Hikaku and a woman who must be Sakurajima, both in silk hitatare embroidered with large Uchiha crests and armoured greaves around their calves. A little further back are another man in hitatare and a woman in slightly less extravagant jūnihitoe, positioned so that he is visible between Hikaku and Madara and she between Kita and Sakurajima.

Tobirama has _never_ seen anybody other than the daimyo and his wife dressed so formally, and then only in prints of state occasions; even then the daimyo's sokutai is _red_ , not _black_! He's only come across black court dress in historical art from the imperial period and it was reserved for the highest ranking lineages of the Emperor's court!

Are the Uchiha _more noble_ than the daimyo?!

Going by the very deep bows being made by the Akimichi –and the Nara and Yamanaka Heads are kneeling and _prostrating themselves_ – the answer to that is _yes_.

Tobirama feels lightheaded. The problem with _not being at war_ is that you have to respect your former enemy's social status and the Senju are very much _not_ a noble clan, which means the _properly polite_ greeting at this point _is_ in fact saikeirei, the most respectful kneeling bow. Which he knows already his brother _isn't going to do_.

All he can do is pray that both other noble clans in the room do _not_ take offense at Hashirama's utter defiance of the social pressures being exerted; he swiftly kneels himself, thus forcing his lower-ranking clansmen to follow his example.

Hashirama, as anticipated, does not take the hint; the depth of his bow is meaningless when he is staying on his feet. Tobirama stares at the floor and despairs.

Miraculously, Madara does _not_ take offense and call off the treaty as he has _every right_ to do. Instead he ignores Hashirama's blatant disrespect, ignores that the Senju are _significantly_ underdressed for an occasion this formal, and after offering both the Akimichi and the Senju small bows of acknowledgement he uses the fan in his hand –which has sharpened steel ribs– to motion all those kneeling to stand, complete with an appropriate verbal formula.

Tobirama stands, then discreetly grabs his brother's sleeve so he doesn't sit down again until _after_ the entire Uchiha party are settled opposite them. Then the Akimichi sit, and once _they_ are seated Tobirama releases Hashirama, and the Senju also make themselves comfortable facing the Uchiha on the cushions provided.

Now it is time for the speeches and gift exchanges; going by how the Nara and Yamanaka Heads are moving to sit at the corners where the Akimichi party meets the Uchiha and Senju parties respectively, Tobirama is thankfully _not_ going to have to urge all his clansmen to stand up each time an Uchiha rises to bring a gift over on a tray. That is very tactful of their hosts and he is _incredibly_ grateful for their forethought.

Hopefully this way his brother can limit himself to just two or three deadly insults per session; he already knows Hashirama isn't going to address Madara as 'Uchiha-sama' and that will put the count at two for today. He does not want to think about how many more will have piled up before the treaty negotiations are complete.

Akimichi-sama's speech is very generous, citing what a momentous occasion it is that two such powerful clans are finally making peace and the stability the treaty will bring to Fire Country. Hashirama's speech is more enthusiastic but less structured; Madara's speech in contrast is measured, gracious and manages to communicate a strong commitment to peace while maintaining considerable ambiguity in what he considers necessary to achieve that.

There are scribes in Tobirama's periferal vision making note of every word; that has the potential to get very awkward for Hashirama in the future. He is going to have to start helping his brother to write speeches beforehand.

Then it is time for the gifts. Thankfully it is considered crass to weigh a gift purely by its monetary value; instead originality and thoughtfulness hold the day and unique or handmade clan-specific items are most cherished. Tobirama was heavily involved in this part of the process, needing something useful to do since Hashirama wasn't letting him set terms in the treaty, and he has hopes that this and the subsequent gift-giving intervals will help smooth over his brother's missteps.

The first gift to the Uchiha is two sets of carved wooden transom panels to be fitted over shōji or fusuma, the cut-outs shaped to create the impression of cranes, pines and bamboo or dragons and waves respectively. They are well-received; Tobirama breathes out a quiet sigh of relief. He had to really be _very_ persuasive to convince Tōka's father, his uncle Tokonoma, to make those, but they are evidently much appreciated. Madara may even choose to display them in the Uchiha clan hall, which would be a significant compliment.

The first gift from the Uchiha is a single stoneware tea bowl, expertly shaped and glossy black with a white skeleton leaf printed into the glaze on the inside somehow. Hashirama manages to express suitably effusive thanks without being excessive; the tears gleaming in his brother's eyes suggest a personal reference that Madara is alluding to, which is hopeful. There is a difference between polite gifts and personally tailored ones after all.

The second round of gifts are dolls; they are intended to be symbolic of each party's wishes for peace, so are shaped like toddlers and dressed in the style of their clan. Tobirama tries not to feel ashamed that the Senju doll is wearing a miniature version of their formalwear no doubt cut from somebody's old clothes, in contrast to the intricately embroidered miniature silk hitatare the Uchiha doll is wearing complete with tiny etched steel greaves. There's nothing else he _could_ have done there; his clan do not have the means.

The third gift is supposed to show commitment to the treaty process; the Senju therefore gift the Uchiha with an inkstone. It is in fact the inkstone that goes with the writing set Hashirama gambled away to Izuna; Tobirama has no particular attachment to it and it is of high enough quality to be a very good gift. The Uchiha present the Senju with a set of beautifully molded inksticks which are very clearly of their own making; Tobirama resolves to make sure his brother uses one once they get into the formal signing of the treaty.

By this point it is coming up on lunchtime, so after more speeches and expressions of commitment the meeting closes, with Tobirama dragging his brother to his feet as Madara stands to help his wife to hers. Kita has been gently fanning herself throughout the meeting; she must be very hot in all those silk layers.

Once the Uchiha have left, Tobirama corners Akimichi Chōtai as politely as he can and asks whether the treaty discussion will all be this formal. Akimichi-sama graciously assures him that no, this is the only occasion when full court formality will be upheld and future meetings will allow for greater freedom of speech. Also less restrictive standards of dress.

Tobirama bows in thanks; he doubts the Uchiha will at any point dress down as far as the Senju; it seems more likely that Madara will don the same silk hitatare as his generals. Speaking of which, is that a genuine formal rank or something else? He's certainly never heard anybody addressing Hikaku as 'general' on the battlefield. He's _also_ fairly sure the youngest 'general' isn't even out of his teens yet.

There's clearly something special about those three though, as the other woman was introduced without a title at all. Well, the girl; her face is still rounded with baby fat and she has that unfinished look that children do not shed until they have finished maturing.

It's not his problem; he can always ask later if he truly cannot bear the suspense. In the meantime he has lunch to attend, questions for his brother regarding the tea bowl and gifts to store securely so that they are not damaged. That would be most disrespectful.

* * *

"Your thoughts, Kita?" Madara asks once they have changed out of their restrictive and stifling court garb and settled down around the table for lunch.

"Hashirama wilfully ignored half the appropriate formalities because he does not recognise their value, Tobirama cringed at every one of his brother's missteps and they are both completely committed to making this work in their own ways," Kita says firmly. "The problem is that Hashirama is used to getting his own way because nobody dares challenge him, so expects that to continue working on all social and interpersonal levels. Tobirama meanwhile is more accustomed to compromise so recognises that formality and manners are essential for political rapport, yet has no authority over his brother with which to command his attention."

Her husband sags. "Hahirama's entire plan for peace when we were younger was that together our clans would be too strong to oppose, so everybody else would stop fighting too," he confesses.

"Except they wouldn't, because our clans would then be a present threat to all of _their_ sovereignty so they'd either try to ally themselves with us or gang up against us," Kita points out.

"I know that _now,_ " Madara mutters. "I was _eleven,_ Kita; Otōsama hadn't started me on court politics yet."

Kita privately wonders how long it took Senju Butsuma to give up on teaching Hashirama anything he didn't want to learn, because it's very clear that Tobirama is the one with the grounded and nuanced understanding of interpersonal and political relationships. "Well, at least there weren't any ill-mannered moments you couldn't politely ignore?" She offers.

"Small mercies," her husband agrees wryly. "The bowing can be overlooked –it was only Hashirama and he _is_ personally powerful enough to match me– and the same goes with the less than formal address. Tobirama kept the rest of his clansmen in line and made sure Hashirama didn't disrespect the Akimichi by sitting down too early, and the gifts were all well-chosen and extremely polite."

"Their dress _could_ be taken as disrespectful, but considering how blank Tobirama went when we walked in I suspect it's more that they don't _have_ anything more formal to wear," Kita continues, fingertips tapping against her teacup. "They were likely unaware of the extreme difference in social status and I know that's the same clothing they wore when we were all in the capital together, and it's a fair assumption that what's good enough for the daimyo would be good enough here. Except of course that the daimyo summoned us for a _festival_ , not an official function, so visiting wear was sufficient for both the leaf-viewing and the Shichi-go-san."

"And it's entirely possible that the daimyo has not _ever_ held an official meeting with the Senju, since their evidently _not_ being noble means he would see no need to," Madara concludes with a sigh. "Well this is awkward."

Silence descends as they both eat, contempating the situation.

"If they're not noble they don't _own_ the land they live on," Kita muses aloud after finishing and setting her chopsticks aside. "Which could explain Izuna's observation that their farmers don't call themselves Senju: if they're not allowed to use the clan name, then the clan doesn't have to pay food tithes to the daimyo for cultivating his land and independent farmers pay less, as they're assumed to lack protection and support. Which means that the Senju clan is in fact an exclusively mercenary clan and technically lacks holdings at _all_ ; their dwellings are therefore assumed to be temporary by law, which again means lower tithes." Which might also explain why Hashirama has built some of them with his mokuton.

"Except they've been squatting just off the Uchiha clan's borders for the past _six hundred years_ ," Madara grumbles, glaring at the dregs of his tea.

"True," Kita agrees slyly, "but now they're making peace with us and want to establish a _formal_ settlement, that means they're going to be officially resident, doesn't it? Which means petitioning to the daimyo for the land and establishing a suitably official relationship. A suitable _subordinate_ relationship, unless they agree to settle on Uchiha land. Which would of course make them _our_ vassals, but also not subject to more stringent supervision from the daimyo due to the pre-existing relationship between our clan and the daimyo's lineage."

Madara stares at her, eyes wide and mouth dropping open for a second before twitching into a massive and delightfully evil grin. "Wife, you are an empress among women," he rumbles, setting his teacup down and rising to his feet. "Let me get the land records; I know I packed them."

Kita clears the dishes away and waits for her husband to return with the selection of relevant scrolls; actual land _ownership_ is restricted to the nobility, with everybody else paying tax to the daimyo for the privilege of his protection. Noble clans do their own protecting, but still pay taxes to the daimyo they have sworn allegiance to as a show of respect and to gain access to services such as road-building, dispute resolution and so on. They are however markedly lower taxes.

Well, the _Uchiha_ pay lower taxes, because their noble station and property predate Fire Country; the Akimichi, as a samurai clan who became noble and landed under the daimyo's aegis, may well pay more. Taxes on specific goods are a little different, as then the tax is for the privilege of selling them _within_ Fire Country; the Uchiha don't pay any tax on what they consume themselves.

Kita adds some more charcoal to the brazier and makes another pot of tea, which is still brewing when her husband returns with an armful of loose pages and scrolls, Sahoro following him carrying a low table. Madara waits until the table is set down, then waves Sahoro away and settles beside it, opening three different scrolls and laying the rest of the documents down on the tatami.

"Here," he says, pointing; Kita shuffles closer to examine the slightly stylised map. "Our boundary is the Naka, so the Uchiha do in fact own half of the land which Hashirama and I intended for the village. The side including the cliffs, see?" He traces the line of the river, following it south and around the western curve past the sandstone cliffs and off the edge of the map; the red-marked border continues back north and east, around the far edge of the small mountain range to join the river again. "If we relinquish something else to the daimyo he may be willing to extend our holdings to include a portion of the eastern bank; it will certainly make tax easier if our settlement isn't straddling a boundary."

"He'll also appreciate your forethought in arranging matters beforehand rather than forcing him to compromise later," Kita agrees dryly.

"So what to sacrifice," her husband mutters, pulling out a much larger-scale map which includes all the smaller Uchiha territories scattered across Fire Country, remnants of historical trades and vassalage arrangements. The clan still uses them as waypoints on missions, secure locations to store weapons and supplies and as information drops for letters, but only two of them are inhabited: a farm that is entirely unremarkable beyond its owner paying his annual rice tithe to the Uchiha rather than the daimyo, and Sora-ku.

Sora-ku is an imperial remnant and the Uchiha own it by virtue of claiming it first after the fall. It's not exactly a _profitable_ holding, but it does bring in steady income by virtue of being technically outside the daimyo's authority and therefore a prime location for the black market. The Uchiha theoretically disapprove of this, but practically speaking it's a great place to go to ground or buy things that are tricky to find elsewhere, and the local criminals are fine with paying a modest fee so the clan mainly look the other way.

The Senju cut off most of the city's water supply about a century ago, aided by the Uzumaki's sealing specialists who disrupted the water table and drained its natural reservoirs, but rain still falls and artificial tanks still retain moisture so there are a few holdouts. It's a terribly desolate-looking place though: nothing but cement and steel high-rise buildings, punctuated by rocks and dust. The Uchiha have always had vague plans for reversing what the Uzumaki did if it was ever possible and they had their own seal specialists, but with how many of her apprentices have died over the years that hope is currently on hold. Disrupting the seal work slightly should at least allow greenery to return to the land, so it will be less bleak and desolate. The clan hangs onto it because it's near a natural doorway to the home of the cat summons, so there's always somebody with the cat contract living there. Currently that's Uchiha Sen; her cousin Mitake was doing it before, but he's married now and wants to raise his future children in the compound rather than out in the wilds with only the cats for company.

Kita's pretty sure Mitake married an ex-geisha, but she's not going to comment. Not when Kazue-san was enthusiastically introduced by her beloved as a self-taught poison specialist; besides, it would be rude. The Uchiha don't bring women into the clan very often –usually it's Uchiha women bringing in out-clan men– but when they do, it's generally women like Kazue who don't _want_ to go back to where they came from.

Not that Mitake's cheery introduction of his new bride spared Kazue a gentle but very probing sharingan interrogation to make sure she wasn't a honey-pot trying to steal the clan bloodline.

Kita taps one corner of the map, down by the coast near the riverlands. "I seem to remember this is just a ruined watchtower with a clean well, but it's strategic for keeping an eye on Wind." It's a bit out of the way, but the well means that Uchiha generally pass through there on their way in and out of Wind despite the length it adds to the journey and the difficulty involved in crossing the riverlands' delta.

"The Osprey Nest?" Madara runs his fingers over the other scrolls lying beside him before picking one. "Yes, and the attached land is large enough that we can demand a decent chunk of the plains beyond the river as well; good farmland if nothing else, but also plenty of room for expansion later. The daimyo will be interested –I doubt he's aware that we own that, even though the palace _will_ have records somewhere– and it's a good location for a small fort to fight off pirates. Decently close to Wave as well, so he might annex them in some suitably polite and unobtrusive manner later. Hopefully we can keep access rights to the well; water is precious."

"Are you going to suggest this during negotiations with the Senju or do it privately afterwards?" Kita asks mildly. This kind of thing _does_ require a face to face meeting with the daimyo after all, being far too important to be arranged by letter.

Madara smirks. "Well, if the Senju bring up land ownership or tax I will of _course_ volunteer the information, but if not…"

Kita chuckles behind her sleeve and pours the tea. She really doubts even Tobirama has considered the implications there; it's not something he will have been taught to take into account.


	2. Chapter 2

Kita's main contribution to both Homeguard and Outguard in the past few years has been introducing the concepts of data sets and statistics based on the clan census details. This has dramatically improved both Madara and Ohabari-oba's ability to provide appropriate resources and support to the individuals in their care, while also being profoundly depressing. For instance, Madara now knows that nineteen of his Outguard warriors are single parents and a further ninety-seven are supporting orphaned nieces, nephews or younger siblings; fifty-three of those are sole adult financial providers.

The numbers hurt, but they _do_ make it easier to keep track of everybody and to ensure nobody falls through the cracks. Madara knows there are only six orphans in the clan under the age of three, for instance, and that Ohabari-oba is making sure those children's carers have access to extra food, supplies and help looking after the other children they are responsible for. He also knows that five of his nineteen Outguard single parents have children younger than three, so _they_ need that same extra support and assistance as well.

The most distressing data is that of the clan's ninety-three children between the ages of nine and eleven, only fifteen still have at least one parent left. All of four still have both parents and of the eighty-nine who have lost parents, seventy-two have either the name of the Senju who bereaved them or sufficient identifying details to know them on sight. Many of those children have also expressed a strong desire for revenge, possibly because they believe it will make them feel better.

Which it won't, but you can't expect a child to recognise that even if you explain it to them. Or to not try anyway even if they understand on some level that it won't improve anything; they have been hurt and it is normal to want to lash out.

The real problem with statistics is that Madara had seen in unforgiving black on white how many children his friend had personally bereaved and orphaned and the number makes him want to vomit. Tobirama's numbers are less horrific, but only because he generally moves with a squad rather than alone and the associated deaths are usually parcelled out fairly evenly, provided there is a survivor to say exactly who has killed who. Unless Tobirama is drowning people on dry land again; that particular trick is something of a signature.

Well, these days it is generally the victims themselves who identify their killers; the Outguard and the medics have got very good at keeping people alive for long enough to bring them home, if not to reliably heal all their more complex injuries. As a result, a lot of children learn who is responsible for their parent's death from said parent, often between four and thirteen days before the parent actually dies.

Madara does not consider this much of an improvement on bringing home dead bodies, but it at least gives his warriors time to set their affairs in order, appoint guardians for any children and say goodbye. He knows his men and women are all _deeply_ appreciative of that time though, because they tell him so repeatedly as their lives slowly slip away one agonised gasp at a time.

They are also deeply appreciative of his acceptance of the duty of granting them a swifter death than nature can provide; many of them wept in gratitude when he held the blade, and some have ashamedly admitted that if he had not agreed to grant them mercy, they might well have in their pain and desperation asked it of their own children.

Madara will _gladly_ take on the burden of guilt for the deaths of his clansmen if it means sparing the children such horrors. No child should feel it their duty to end a parent's life. Yori and her medics are at least getting better at toeing the line between sedatives and poisons these days; the most recent sufferers passed quietly in their sleep, which was an altogether less distressing end for everybody involved. Less laundry required afterwards too.

However right now he is bitterly grateful for all these horrible numbers his wife has introduced into his life, as they give him material with which to dispute Hashirama's claim that they don't need to formalise a system for resolving disputes between individual clan members.

"People can settle things between themselves, Madara! We're going to be at peace, nobody's going to be attacking each-other and if they do, other people will stop them!"

Madara glares. "You, _personally_ , have bereaved one hundred and thirty-five of my clan's children," he says sharply, "and of those, over a hundred and twenty _know_ it was you who killed one or both of their parents. I am not doing this for the _adults_ ; I am doing it for the _children_ who are going to try and stab you in the kidney for being the reason they don't have a mother or father anymore!"

His friend goes white. "Madara?"

"The vast majority of Uchiha children over the age of seven know the names or identifying features of the Senju who killed one or both of their parents," Madara continues ruthlessly, "and are likely to try _something_ , either immediately or in a few years' time once they're older and know what to do with a knife or fire jutsu. I want a system in place so that appropriate punishment can be meted out _without_ bringing the entire treaty into question, which means laying down official guidelines for dispute resolution between individual members of our clans _within_ the treaty."

"What kind of guidelines did you have in mind, Madara-sama?" Tobirama asks smoothly, picking up his brush to take notes as Hashirama twitches in confused distress.

Madara takes a calming breath. "Firstly, all conflicts between members of our respective clans are assumed to be personal," he begins, easily bringing his notes to mind, "and therefore are to be brought to a joint tribunal of those within their respective clans who would normally judge such personal disputes."

Tobirama neatly jots down his words before glancing up. "Interpersonal disputes in the Senju clan are expected to be resolved between the individuals in question, or if involving children, then the parents or guardians of the individuals in question. Only in the case of irreconcilable differences are matters brought to a higher ranking individual, who will make a judgement for both parties to abide by."

Madara knows he's making a very unimpressed face right now. "In the Uchiha clan, personal disputes between warriors are resolved by myself as Head of the Outguard. Personal disputes between clan members who are not warriors are taken to the elders of their respective lineages, who interview both parties and any additional witnesses at their discretion before coming to a decision, potentially bringing in other elders to guarantee fairness if further parties are involved. If the elders cannot reach a decision, the matter is taken to the Homeguard Head, who is responsible for all domestic clan matters. If a clan member does not believe their lineage elder would arbitrate fairly, they may take the matter to the Homeguard Head directly. Personal disputes between warriors and other clan members are resolved jointly by the Outguard and Homeguard Heads, who must come to a consensus. In disputes involving children, witness statements are given greater weight than the opinions or beliefs of the child's parent or guardian. Most witness statements are attained via sharingan, to guarantee accuracy."

Tobirama shoves his filled note sheet aside so as to continue writing on the one beneath it. "I assume that the large size of the Uchiha clan makes this system more effective, as there are too many individuals for a clan head to be personally familiar with all of them, Madara-sama?" He asks, glancing up at Madara again.

"Quite, which is why it is important for such a thing to be included in the treaty," Madara continues. "Together our clans will number over eight hundred people, which is far too many for a single individual to adjudicate between without compromising on fairness."

"Who adjudicates matters involving the clan head?"

Madara smiles thinly. "Cases involving the Homeguard Head are brought to the Outguard Head and vice versa. Family members are generally brought in to ensure appropriate resolution; in my case that means my brother would replace me as interim Outguard Head until a dispute is resolved and my wife would stand in for the Homeguard Head, seeing as their firstborn is not yet old enough to assume their responsibilities."

Hashirama blinks, a little of his colour returning. "Madara, but I thought _you_ were the clan head?"

"I am head of the Uchiha Outguard and therefore responsible for all interactions between the clan and external parties, be it trade, diplomacy or warfare," Madara snaps. "Craft and domestic matters are _not_ my responsibility, although I am permitted to involve myself when they impinge upon my other duties. The Homeguard Head is permitted to do likewise; this treaty is a _diplomatic_ matter, so I am responsible for negotiating it, but the Homeguard Head was consulted and has made suggestions as to terms in certain areas."

"So you lead half the Uchiha clan," Hashirama says, frowning.

"I _co-lead_ the Uchiha clan," Madara corrects irritably. "I have three times as many people in my clan as in yours, Hashirama; there's far _too_ much for one man to keep track of." He suspects that is also the case in the Senju clan regardless of their smaller size, seeing as Tobirama is clearly doing a lot of Hashirama's work for him.

"So, in a dispute between an Uchiha and a Senju, the Uchiha would bring it to whoever would usually be responsible for such a thing within their clan," Akimichi Chōtai intercedes smoothly, "and the Senju would take it to..?"

"Myself, most likely," Tobirama murmurs. "At least until an equivalent system is laid out and a suitably senior individual charged with the responsibility." He makes several more notes, wetting his brush in the ink again. "I will see about appointing a few qualified people, so that everyone may have their choice of advocates." He glances at his brother. "Would that suit, Anija?"

"Yes, that would be great," Hashirama agrees vaguely, still frowning. "Madara, is this why you didn't agree to peace sooner?"

"I bow to the will of my clan," Madara says shortly, "as every good leader must."

"So once both the Uchiha and the Senju have taken their grievance to the appointed representatives, those two will gather evidence and come to a decision between them," the Akimichi Head continues comfortably as beside him Nara Shikamotsu and Yamanaka Inoshi both takes notes. "If an agreement cannot be reached, the dispute will be placed before both clan heads –or the Outguard Head in the Uchiha case, Madara-sama, seeing as they are responsible for external relations– to be decided between them. And if a decision can _still_ not be reached?"

"But I'm sure we would!" Hashirama objects.

"Us two perhaps, but what about our eventual successors?" Madara points out, knowing that the implication of the peace treaty lasting that long will win his friend over immediately.

Sure enough, "Oh yes! Right! We do need to consider the future!" Hashirama agrees, beaming brightly. "Erm, call in a neutral third party?"

"An acceptable measure," Madara agrees; Ohabari-oba made the same suggestion. "One agreed upon by both Heads."

"So this point is settled for the time being," Chōtai-dono says. "Interpersonal disputes between members of different clans will be resolved jointly by representatives from each clan responsible for the relevant parties, and if a consensus cannot be reached the matter will be taken first to the Clan Heads, then to a neutral third party."

"An acceptable summary," Madara concedes.

"Full details for each clan can be laid out privately at a later date," the Akimichi Head continues warmly, "as it's more of an internal matter than strictly relating to the treaty. Now, I believe it is Hashirama-san's turn to make a suggestion?"

* * *

Kita's responsibilities during the peace negotiations are essentially to make tea for her husband, hand him scrolls upon request, keep her ears open and occasionally nudge said husband so he remembers to keep his temper. It might not sound like much, but it's a surprisingly tough job. Being present for something you are heavily invested in the outcome of but not really being able to participate is not at all fun. It can more honestly be described as an exercise in patience and self-control; she has to pay close attention in order to keep up, but not being allowed to contribute directly is most frustrating.

At least Madara is happy to listen to her thoughts and feelings at the end of each day, although she does first need to let him rant himself out at the utter thickheadedness of some of Hashirama's suggestions and his obtuseness in the face of necessary practical or political concessions. Which is also the root of many of her own frustrations; Tobirama is at least willing to recognise that he might not know everything he needs to in order to make an informed decision.

There've been three days of negotiations –well arguments– so far, and this morning was so utterly without resolution that Akimichi-dono announced at noon that they would break early and take tomorrow off to consider respective positions and new approaches. Which is a polite way to say 'Go to your rooms and work out what you did wrong then apologise and act like adults,' but Kita is honestly glad for the rest. Especially since today's argument was about how the two clans would choose which missions to accept in the future; Hashirama wants a single person vetting missions directed to both clans and assigning individuals or mixed squads according to their skill set, while Madara dug his heels in for each clan keeping separate mission vetting and just checking mission briefings against each-other to ensure they aren't being set up to fight each-other.

It hadn't quite escalated to shouting, but only because her husband had fumed and hissed through gritted teeth instead. His chakra was getting rather alarming at the end there though. Thankfully Hashirama now has a slightly better hold on his own chakra than he did five years ago, so sitting across a table from him does not compromise her ability to breathe.

"–get his head around the fact that we're supporting _three times as many people_ on our mission load, so can't afford to let Senju snatch any of them up! Never mind our commitments to our long-term clients and the fact that I'm not about to send off a teenage genjutsu specialist with a pair of _strangers_ when they have a _squad_ who knows them better! There is a _reason_ we have squads and it is so we don't _lose_ people! Yes, a five-man squad _is_ overkill for most missions; that's the _point_!"

Kita, having already changed into a casual kimono, gets out a bottle of sake and some cups; Madara doesn't usually drink much, but a little sake will help him calm down and give him an excuse to cuddle. He's very tactile but also fairly private, and their being away from home makes him a bit shyer about putting his hands on her outside the bedroom despite there not being any small children here to barge in on them.

He can burn off the buzz in a split-second with chakra if he needs to; the alcohol is basically an excuse for reduced decorum, as the crass jokes come out when the sake does. Her husband says the most lewd things once he's in his cups and it's hilarious.

"Why can't he see that sending a squad out for three different missions in the same area is more efficient than sending two pairs and a solo shinobi?! It's _safer_ and means the group is more flexible! So what if it takes a little longer; our clients _know_ how we do things, they _like_ that our squads are prepared for more than the obvious and can adjust on the fly in case of unpleasant surprises! They _like_ that we can run rings around most of our enemies rather than just cutting them down! I am _not_ destroying all the hard work I've put into getting casualties outside of Senju encounters to a historic all-time _low_ just so that _blockhead_ can feel I'm being fair to his clan!"

Kita sets the sake and cups down on the table, then gets up and walks over to her furiously panting husband. "Have a drink with me?" She requests, toying with his collar.

He eyes her; she's being utterly transparent about her desire to distract him but he doesn't seem to mind much. "Really, Kita?"

"Yes, really," she insists gently. "A break will help you feel better, and then tomorrow morning we can think about how to word our demands so they seem more palatable to the pillar of the Senju."

Madara snorts at her pun; a pillar is a 'hashira'. "My wife wants to get me drunk," he laments wryly as he follows her to the table and settles himself beside her. "So improper."

"My husband needs to set the morning's annoyances aside and relax a little," Kita retorts, pouring a little sake into the cups; she is going to burn off whatever she drinks immediately, so it doesn't hurt the foetus she is gestating. "Let's talk about something else."

Madara accepts the cup, sipping the sake morosely. "Talk about what, wife?"

Kita turns to face him. "How well do you think Izuna is managing with the twins now that he can't just be the fun uncle but has to make sure they behave themselves?"

Her husband's lips twitch faintly as he drinks more of the sake. "He will be horrified," Madara predicts blandly, "and lament that he is turning into me."

"I'm not sure I could manage two of you, husband," Kita says drolly, sipping her sake and using a pinch of chakra to burn away the alcohol before she swallows. "I already have my hands full with one."

Madara chuckles as he pours himself more sake, eyes dancing as he fills his cup. "Nice to know my wife thinks I'm well hung."

"Madara!"

His laugh makes it worth it, even though that was a _terrible_ joke. "You walked into that one," he points out mischievously, shaking his head at her. Kita mimes a slap at his arm in faux disapproval at his coarseness; sake always makes him like this, even when he's not drunk enough alcohol to be tipsy. Just the fact that he's sitting down and drinking sake brings out _all_ the dirty jokes. He can blame the alcohol for all the improprieties and takes cheerful advantage.

"You're incorrigible," she tells him.

He smirks at her over his sake. "You've never complained before; just think what two of me could do in the bedroom."

Kita elbows him again. "Just think what two of _me_ could do," she teases back. His sudden flush as he chokes slightly on his drink is extremely gratifying.

"You're already worth two of me, beloved," he says a little hoarsely after recovering, eyes soft and heated as he pours himself another full cup; he's already drunk three times what she first poured him without that. "Double that and I'd be completely overwhelmed."

"And you'd love every _instant_ of it," Kita predicts ruthlessly, making her husband's eyes cross slightly, clutching his cup as his imagination sabotages his composure further.

"Oh yes," he agrees softly, taking another long sip of sake. "I'd die _very_ happy."

Kita snorts into her sleeve at the mental image, her husband grinning delightedly at having made her lose some of her own poise. "Well I don't want you to die on me just yet," she says lightly.

"Still got a use for me then?" He leers, face flushed from the alcohol more than from embarrassment; his sense of shame is the first thing to go when he drinks, which is part of the fun really.

"Oh yes you're _very_ useful," she agrees flirtatiously as he drains his cup again. "I'd really struggle to get things down from high shelves without you."

Madara _roars_ with laughter, almost toppling over backwards. "That's me put in my place!" He eventually manages to wheeze, clutching his stomach and setting his now empty sake cup back on the table on his second attempt. He's _definitely_ edging into tipsiness now.

"The warm bed at night's good too," Kita concedes wickedly.

"So my wife is satisfied with my performance of my marital duties?" Madara asks with a husky chuckle, leaning in and catching her hand so he can lift it to his mouth. "Is she sure? I'd be delighted to demonstrate my diligence and _attentiveness_ to her desires." He kisses her fingers, eyes fixed avidly on her face as his teeth scrape lightly across her skin.

Kita shivers in a way that has nothing to do with the air temperature.

"See, my wife is _cold_ ," Madara murmurs slyly, shuffling closer and gently nuzzling the edge of her jaw. "Let me warm you, Kita-koi; let me set a fire under your skin." He sets her hand firmly on his shoulder than slides his own up her arm and down her back to the knot of her obi. "Surrender yourself to me and I will make you _burn_."

"Now who's improper, wanting to ravish me in the main room with the shōji open," Kita breathes, well aware of her racing heart and the hot shivers racing up her spine.

"No-one's watching," her husband assures her arrogantly, nipping lightly on her throat. "No children here to interrupt. I can unwrap and _savour_ you like the gift you are."

Oh yes, very definitely a little bit drunk now; zero shame and extremely tactile. Utterly adorable too. "Are you going to lay me out on my kimono like an erotic print?" Kita asks sweetly, having no objections whatsoever to the idea.

Madara shudders, groaning. "Yes," he rasps, tugging her obi loose and pulling it off, then muscling her down to the tatami and half-collapsing on top of her. Kita squirms as his lips find the sensitive spot behind her ear, then shivers as he tugs her kimono open and makes quick work of untying her undershirt and slip, large, strong and calloused hands gliding firmly across her exposed skin.

"Are you going," her breath catches as he tugs her knees apart so he can settle between them, still fully dressed, "to make me _whimper_ , beloved?"

His hand on her thigh clenches almost hard enough to bruise. " _Yes_."

Kita tugs gently on his hair until her lips find his and she can kiss him. "Let me look at you first?" She requests breathlessly when they both finally pull back for air, acutely aware of his fingers caressing her in intimately pleasurable places.

Her husband kisses her again slowly and sweetly, then very reluctantly kneels upright and takes his hands off her so he can untie his hakama.

"And the jacket, husband," Kita reminds him, pushing an elbow back to prop herself up so she can properly appreciate the view.

"Hn." He obligingly strips himself entirely naked, showing off scarred skin dusted with dark hairs and underpinned with deliciously solid muscle. "Like what you see, love?" His eyes are red, tomoe swirling, making it clear that _he_ certainly likes what he's seeing.

Kita calls on her own sharingan, relishing the hitch in his breath and the ripple of muscle it prompts… along with the very visible arousal. Her husband is _magnificent_. "Madara?" She murmurs, watching him avidly.

"Yes, Kita-koi?"

She pouts. "I'm cold."

He's on top of her almost too fast for her sharingan to follow, pinning her to the floor with his bulk so she can't ignore the heat coming off his skin. "Better?" He rumbles, rolling his hips.

Kita does not suppress the shudder of pleasure the movement inspires.

"Clearly not," he murmurs huskily, hand caressing her side and sliding down to rest on her thigh as he stares hungrily at her face, eyes still bright and red. "Lie back and let me _warm_ you, beloved."

Kita surrenders herself completely to her husband's care. As promised, she is warm and whimpering in very short order.

* * *

Tobirama sits on the engawa at the back of the guesthouse, re-reading his notes of yesterday's diplomatic breakdown and taking more notes on a separate scroll. His stay with the Uchiha made it abundantly clear that the two clans do not have the same outlook or priorities, so he has made a point of writing down as much as what Madara says as possible to go over later, hunting for the implications and nuances that his brother is deaf and blind to.

Madara's insistence on five-man teams seems illogical and impractical until you consider that there is nothing short of an equivalent Senju force that will hinder an Uchiha five-man team. Except possibly a bijuu; either way, no matter how badly wrong a mission goes or how blatantly a client has lied, the most likely outcome is an Uchiha victory with minimal injuries and no casualties. With how depleted Madara's forces are compared to the number of children in his care, it follows that he would want to do everything in his power to preserve the lives of his men, even at the cost of a lower mission acceptance rate.

Conversely, if the Uchiha clan's usual customers _know_ that hiring Uchiha from more than a half-day's comfortable travel distance will _always_ net them a five-man team, they are less likely to lie about the relative difficulty of the mission. After all, five shinobi can accomplish in a day what might take two most of a week. A squad is also more versatile than an individual; if mission parameters change, the squad is not inconvenienced the way a lone specialist would be.

It is however completely the opposite of the usual Senju approach to missions, which is to send the smallest possible number of the most appropriately qualified individuals, so that the clan can take on as many contracts as possible and maximise income. A smaller force can travel more discreetly, but there is also a higher risk of injury and death should things go wrong.

Over to his left in the garden outside the guesthouse, Hashirama flops on a tree branch as the leaves around him flutter in more than just the breeze; Tobirama ignores his brother's moping, frowning down at his notes. The Senju have always lost more warriors to the battlefield than to missions, but the fact remains that they _do_ lose people to missions now and then. Madara is implying here that he _doesn't_.

What makes a clan? Is it their name, their pride, their _authority_ as his father always said, or is it the _people_?

The past few days have made it clear that Madara believes wholeheartedly that it is the people who make the clan. Tobirama actually agrees with him; everything he's ever done to get stronger and faster has been to protect the people he is responsible for and support his older brother. If their clansmen are the priority, then Madara's approach is the only logical choice.

If it is clan pride, wealth and ensuring everybody knows their name and strength, then the Senju mission method is far more effective. Tobirama scowls; this is evidently another way his father has influenced his thinking without him even noticing it. Has also influenced Hashirama's thinking; he's going to have to explain this in detail to his brother, so that Hashirama can see the nuances and decide for himself what his priorities are.

Tobirama suspects that, with a full understanding of the subtleties, Hashirama will bow to Madara's model. It will take a lot of effort to rework Senju mission methods and will probably require talking with some of Madara's senior lieutenants and training instructors, but the final result will be fewer deaths and that is what his brother actually _wants_. Even though it may mean a reduction of income in the short term as everybody adjusts.

He glances up as a Yamanaka walks around the building. "Senju-san, Uchiha O-Kita-sama has read your letter and she invites you to tea in the Akimichi rose garden this afternoon at three," the woman recites, mimicking Kita-san's speech patterns exactly.

"Thank you, Yamanaka-san." So he will be allowed to present Kita with his gift privately, as is appropriate. That could say that Madara trusts she will not come to harm under the ongoing truce, or more pragmatically that he trusts his wife to rend Tobirama limb from limb should he attempt anything untoward.

Both probably, even though she would certainly ruin the rose garden in taking action. He packs his notes away and gets to his feet; he should explain matters appropriately to Hashirama before lunch, so that his brother will be suitably distracted by the revelation to not question where Tobirama is going in the afternoon. He would otherwise attempt to invite himself along to also express his thanks in person and that would _not_ be appropriate.

Never mind that there _aren't_ any chakra-masking seals here, which makes his new awareness of what various couples are getting up to in his immediate range vastly more awkward. Especially since years of keeping track of Madara for his brother mean he _can't_ ignore the man's chakra no matter _what_ he's doing, especially not at less than half a mile's distance.

Does he dare brave the awkwardness of mentioning to Kita that he would appreciate her putting some seals on the guesthouse the Uchiha are occupying? The request would have to be made privately –the Uchiha might not have shared such things with the Akimichi– but since he will soon get the opportunity to do so…

It is something to consider at least. Depending on how the rest of the encounter goes.

* * *

The Akimichi rose garden is an intriguing mix of long rows of untidy rose hedges, none of which are yet in bloom, interspersed with small paved areas edged with different, more neatly trimmed varieties in a range of sizes. Tobirama assumes that the roses in the hedges are processed for rose water, a much-coveted flavouring agent, while the others are simply ornamental. Although possibly also experimental, to see if any improvements can be made to scent or flavour.

It is raining right now, not so surprising for May, but Tobirama can see from here the small open-sided pavilion the Akimichi have put up for Kita-san to serve tea under. He takes a moment to adjust his coat collar and make sure the borrowed umbrella is covering both himself and the wrapped gift he is carrying, then carefully sets out between the rose hedges. Those thorns look sharp and this is not the moment to damage his clothing.

He is grateful that he remembered the range of outfits he saw the Uchiha wearing in the capital and thought to borrow additional kimono and hakama from other clansmen beyond his Senju formalwear; being able to vary his outfits without compromising on respect shown has made the negotiations ever so slightly less stressful. That Mito evidently remembered likewise and ensured Hashirama also had a selection to choose from helps, even though –going by the complaints– they aren't all to his brother's taste. Hashirma does wear them, but he sulks about it before meetings and changes out of the ones he dislikes as quickly as possible afterwards.

It is a very large garden; more of a rose orchard or field. Tobirama is grateful for the visual reference point of the pavilion in addition to the now-familiar chakra signature which has just arrived at it, and that the rose hedges are all parallel to each-other. A more complex pattern may well have been more aesthetically pleasing, but it would also have made navigating the garden extremely challenging. As it is, crossing it diagonally is rather complicated due to the variations in how the breaks in the hedges are spaced and Tobirama would have been better off walking up the edge until he found a direct path to the pavilion, but it is too late for that now. He would be late to tea.

Arriving at the pavilion reveals a coat rack, umbrella stand and wash bowl set just under cover, along with a pair of tatami set in a square over a thick blanket to serve as a floor and even a pair of guest slippers. His host is sitting to one side in a very elegant kimono beside an iron teapot set over a small hot box, politely watching the garden to one side and ignoring him.

Tobirama carefully shakes off the umbrella before setting it in the stand, removes his coat –her coat is already hanging up, its colourful silk lining just visible– and takes off his sandals, wiping his feet on the towel in his pocket and putting on the tabi he picked up upon leaving the guest house before stepping into the slippers and washing his hands in the bowl. Then he steps onto the tatami with the gift, sitting down in the position of the first and only guest. Kita-san promptly turns to face him.

"Tobirama-san. I trust you are well?"

Nodate chakai is the least formal tea ceremony, however her invitation did not indicate they would be drinking matcha; her addressing him directly in such a manner however implies this is not a ceremony at all despite her outfit. This is therefore likely to be intended as strictly informal, and only outside at all so as to guarantee him privacy from the rest of the Uchiha entourage. Tobirama is very grateful for her consideration.

"Very well, thank you Kita-san. Kita-sama?" Now he is aware of her status and they are not enemies he should be more respectful.

"Kita-san is acceptable in this setting, Tobirama-san." Or not, if that is her preference.

"Kita-san then."

She pours the tea right out of the iron pot –this is indeed informal tea– into the small tea cups, setting one in front of him on the tatami and the other at her side. "So what was it you wished to discuss with me, Tobirama-san?"

Where to start? "I am very grateful to you for the most excellent coat you made for me," Tobirama begins. "Since my return home, my aunt and grandmother have both reprimanded me for accepting such a generous gift without offering something in exchange; my grandmother in particular had much to say on the subject." Tobirama had not realised until then that the wave design was hand-printed from a paper template rather than bought already dyed from a press, or that the vajra that is the Senju clan's symbol had been painted on freehand. His aunt had also treated him to a lecture on the subject of hand-dyeing as opposed to machine printing, and the amount of time it took to train a seamstress capable of creating a garment of such quality in mere days.

The revelation had made him feel exceedingly small; he had not realised there was so much to know about clothing and the newfound awareness of his ignorance is unsettling. How many other mundane things that he takes for granted require more effort than he has ever dreamed? The throwaway comment about laundry has already led him to a discussion with the clan vassals who wash the Senju's garments and the process is indeed lengthy and complex, made more so by stains; bloodstains in particular. Water chakra had indeed proved effective there and he'd been laughingly –but very sincerely– invited to come back and help any time he wished, as he'd saved them all several hours' work.

The idea of a laundry jutsu is perhaps not what he was expecting to be developing at this point in time, but if he can wash his own clothes effectively and in little time then it is a worthwhile investment. He dislikes the realisation that he is so dependent on the hard work of others that he has never once shown appreciation for.

Kita-san is watching him, chakra calm and face politely attentive.

"She insists that both I and the clan owe you a debt of gratitude for your time and care," Tobirama continues, "and assisted me in selecting an appropriate gift." He holds out the wrapped box with both hands. "It is a small thing, but I trust it will be well-received."

Kita hesitates appropriately, then deviates from the usual ritual of polite refusal entirely: "Tobirama-san, it is usually polite to refuse a gift at first, but I am reminded that I did not offer you the opportunity to refuse your coat, or indeed present it to you as a gift at all. You were in our care not of your own choice and unable to enforce your own desires and preferences. What I did was as much for my own benefit as for yours, but I am reminded that the value of a gift is not what it means to the giver, but to the recipient. So I will not make little of your family's gratitude by even pretending to refuse."

Tobirama considers her words as she takes the wrapped box from him with both hands, setting it down on the tatami in front of her. She is right that his coat was not presented as a gift at all; that he would need one was decided for him, and while he was consulted on the matter of design and decoration, it was never offered as though it were a gift. More a necessity he was unfortunately deficient in. Had it been presented as a gift he would certainly have attempted to refuse, but nobody else in the Uchiha clan had treated his coat as though it was special. Nobody had even _looked_ at it. Well, until Izuna.

Then again, the entire Uchiha clan wears such coats; perhaps to them they _are_ expected. Even the children wore miniature versions on rainy days. Learning that on the civilian market such a garment would cost half as much as a silk kimono had been very startling. That is a lot of money for a coat.

"Please open it right away, Kita-san." If he does not ask she will do so later, after he has left, and he wishes to be able to assure Baasan that her gift is genuinely appreciated rather than merely politely accepted.

"Tobirama-san, before I do so, would you permit me to explain in greater detail the implications of our gifting you that coat?"

Tobirama feels a shiver of foreboding slide up his spine. "Very well, Kita-san." He picks up his tea and sips it, both to give him something polite to do with his hands and because it is likely drinkable by now. Which indeed it is.

"I should first clarify that you will not meet with any censure or animosity for accepting the coat; the clan has made clear they recognise that the responsibility is entirely my own and my husband's, for presenting it to you in the first place." That is not a promising beginning, as it implies they _have_ faced consequences for doing so. "Our coats are a clan craft, Tobirama-san; the method of their manufacture has in fact been recently classed as hiden." A secret technique? For a _coat_? "Only Uchiha wear such coats, and therefore to wear a coat is to _be_ Uchiha. By blood or adoption."

Tobirama knows his eyes are very wide right now.

"I have made it clear that I deliberately deviated from the standard design in making your coat, so it is _not_ a clan coat," Kita continues firmly, "and that it does not bear our clan crest. The clan has accepted this, but has since taken steps to clarify what qualifies as a proper clan coat and which of those properties are acceptable to include in coats intended for outsiders." Her lips twist in a brief, rueful smile. "Your coat, Tobirama-san, is very much _not_ according to those approved standards."

She pauses to sip her own tea. Tobirama really does not know _what_ to say, so he says nothing at all. This at least explains why upon laying eyes on him at the exchange Izuna had looked and felt as though he wished to set Tobirama on fire; it had been as much a reaction to the coat as to him personally.

The implication that Izuna's brother had adopted into the Uchiha clan the man who had dealt him a mortal wound is indeed worthy of that degree of fury. Clearly the matter has been properly resolved now, but he doubts either Kita-san or Madara escaped without censure. Especially with their leadership structure being significantly more spread out than the Senju one.

"An Uchiha battle coat," Kita continue softly, eyes downcast, "is double-quilted around a canvas core with two different patterns. It is long-sleeved, covering the bones of the wrist, the lower hem hangs below the knees and the collar is high enough to obscure the chin but not the mouth when standing straight. The outside is indigo cotton marked only with our clan crest between the shoulders, and the lining may be cotton or silk according to the status of the wearer. Such a coat, when dowsed in water, is nigh-impossible to set on fire. The double layer of padding protects the wearer from blunt force and the canvas core helps to defend against blades. The high collar not only shields the throat, but provides a filter to breathe through so the lungs will not be fouled by smoke or soot."

He has not merely been gifted with a coat. He has been given _armour_. No wonder her clan are upset!

"In retrospect," Kita-san says dryly, "I recognise that I _should_ have made you a single-quilted coat, but those are usually only made for children. All adults wear the standard coats, which are made for every clan member either upon joining the Outguard or upon reaching their full growth. I haven't made a single-layer coat in almost a decade; as the clan's senior craftswoman my time is deemed too valuable for such and most children's coats are passed around and reused rather than personalised." She sighs. "The only reason I was _not_ censured for including the seals is that I am the first craftswomen to add seals to the clan coats, so they are a personal embellishment rather than a tradition. Although they are likely to _become_ traditional for my own eventual students. As the clan's fūinjutsu specialist I have the latitude to bestow my work as and where I wish, with the assumption that I have the clan's best interests at heart. As I included only the most basic of seals in your coat, my reasons for doing so were accepted."

Tobirama finally finds his voice. "How long will such a coat last, Kita-san?"

"With proper care and appropriate repairs should it become damaged? A lifetime, Tobirama-san," Kita-san tells him ruefully. "Or longer; Madara-san still has his father's coat and wears it when I am repairing his usual one. Tajima-sama's coat was made for him when he was fourteen, not yet Outguard Head or even married."

Tobirama is very sure that Tajima _died_ in that coat. Then again, the Senju do reuse iron armour that way, repairing or replacing the damaged sections and fitting the plates to a new wearer. Only the highest-ranking warriors get new armour made or remade to their personal preferences and the idea of _spare armour_ is really a bit much. Yes, he has a few spare plates, but an entire spare _set_? Pure extravagance. To wear the coat armour on top of fitted lacquered lamellar armour and occasionally additional battle plate –such as Madara favours– on top of _that_? That is…

"Now I have clarified the situation and provided you with more details of what has been gifted to you, I trust that you will exercise due tact when wearing it," Kita-san requests.

"Of course. Thank you again for your kindness." Tobirama bows briefly. "And I would still like to see you open your gift, Kita-san." Sunami-baa will never let him hear the end of it otherwise.

Her half-smile is very much like the one Madara gets sometimes on the battlefield when whoever he is fighting provides a new and unexpected challenge. "Of course, Tobirama-san." She sets her teacup aside and sets about untying the knots of the cloth wrapping the gift box.

Tobirama isn't exactly sure of the value of his gift; all he knows is that after examining his coat, interrogating him on its manufacture and scolding him soundly for his ignorance, his grandmother had gone through her various possessions and announced that this was the most appropriate gift to offer in return.

"This is a very lovely furoshiki. The fern print is incredibly delicate." Kita-san turns the olive green cloth over in her hands before carefully folding it and setting it aside, then examines the box.

It's a very plain box, polished wood with a simple catch. Kita-san opens it, folding the lid out flat, and her face lights up.

Well that is the proof of success Baasan will want to have described to her in detail. Such unguarded joy is rare to see.

"Tobirama-san, these are _beautiful_. Where did they come from?" She lifts out one of the two-pronged tortoiseshell hairpins, turning it over very carefully in her hands. The box contains eight –an auspicious number for gifts– and while they are all very similarly patterned with waves and frolicking fish, no two are truly identical.

"Carved tortoiseshell hairpins are an Uzumaki craft; these were made by a friend of my Obaasan and given to her when she married my Ojiisan." They are not something he has ever seen Sunami-baa wearing, so it is possible they are only suitable for younger women or that she simply does not personally care for such things these days. A hairstyle such as requires these kinds of pins is a fairly complex undertaking.

Kita-san meets his eyes over the pin she is holding. "Tobirama-san, your grandfather married one of the Uzumaki _head's_ daughters. This is the kind of thing worn only by princesses and daimyo's wives; tortoiseshell of this quality is incredibly rare, especially in such quantities."

"No less rare than the coat you have gifted me with, Kita-san, or the consideration you showed me in your home." It was the most comfortable imprisonment he has ever experienced or heard spoken of, all the more remarkable for the animosity nurtured between their clans.

She bows briefly to him. "Thank you for this magnificent gift, Tobirama-san, and please pass on my gratitude to your Obaasan."

He bows in return as she carefully puts the pin back and closes the box.

"Would you like more tea, Tobirama-san?"

"Thank you, Kita-san." The new cup of tea gives him the time to decide how to word his request. "Kita-san?"

"Yes, Tobirama-san?"

"Might I request that you place one of your chakra-veiling seals on your current abode? Madara-sama's chakra is… difficult to ignore at close range." That is as politely oblique as he is capable of being.

Kita-san of course instantly catches his meaning; she has the gall to look _amused_. "I will ask Akimichi-dono for permission to do so, in the interests of not further disturbing your rest, Tobirama-san." She knows _exactly_ what he's been witness to over the past few days and clearly cares not one jot. He'd be offended if he wasn't slightly impressed by that blatant shamelessness; how can she know and not _care?_ Such things are _private_!

Of course he does not _say_ that. "Thank you, Kita-san." She has agreed to obscure further marital escapades and that is all he requires.

* * *

Negotiations reopen with a fresh round of gift-giving; Madara presents the Senju party with a set of tea plates he has painted himself, showing quail in a range of ages and poses, and Hashirama presents them with a cut-glass sake set. He suspects this is another Uzumaki item, like Kita's new hairpins; glass is rare this far inland and it doesn't travel well.

The matter of mission vetting and allotment that they spent so long arguing over before the break is smoothly settled in under an hour –Hashirama makes various concessions and Madara agrees to a few associated compromises and commitments in return– and then the next item on the agenda comes up: both clans committing to becoming less dependent on mercenary missions. Tobirama's main sticking point here is how to quantify such a thing; is it based on the number of individuals practicing crafts, the number earning a livelihood _from_ their crafts or more to do with the proportion of total clan income?

Hashirama meanwhile is both keen to promote peace and a bit baffled over why they would have to stop being shinobi to do so. Surely people can be shinobi and not fight each-other?

Madara despairs of his friend sometimes; people don't change just because you _tell_ them to, you have to make it beneficial to them and appealing in a way they understand.

So he words his idea differently: certain missions do not promote increased conflict with civilians and other shinobi clans, such as trade caravan protection, hunting down thieves and investigating arson or murder. Others –theft, assassination, assault– do. The point is to eventually stop taking missions that promote escalation into field warfare with other shinobi, while diversifying into more peaceful pursuits so that the clan can remain prosperous. So the measure of success is that the clan no longer _needs_ to take on such missions, no matter how much money is offered. After all nobody _needs_ an assassination, and if they have vast quantities of money to throw at a shinobi for it, then they _certainly_ have other means to get around whatever problem that person is causing them.

The Senju are still chewing over this perspective when they break for lunch, and come back to the negotiating table with a number of fairly predictable questions.

"How can we be sure that a mission is the right type based on the request?"

"We train our warriors in the investigative aspects so they can make appropriate decisions, not just our vetting and intelligence staff," Madara replies comfortably; this is something he's long since gone over with Kita and Outguard training has been modified accordingly. "To ask the right questions upon meeting their client, to listen, to discreetly interview third parties to improve their understanding of the situation and, if necessary, negotiate for an alteration to mission terms in the field for a more favourable outcome." Which is another point of sending out a squad rather than a solo shinobi: very few civilians are willing to argue with five Uchiha warriors all staring expectantly at them, having come up with –and occasionally already enacted– a more discreet and law-abiding method than outright murder to remove the undesirable individual and expecting to be paid for the service, if perhaps not quite as much. Navigating the complexities of civilian power play is also completely different to what his warriors face on the battlefield, so it gives them opportunities to try new things in a more secure context and kick back a little.

It helps that, being a noble clan with a notable stake in the luxury goods market, the Uchiha are negotiating from a position of power. Nobody wants to be blacklisted by them, so their client base is adjusting. It also means the Uchiha are picking up a range of different and frequently more complicated missions these days, which doesn't always pay as well but then again, it isn't like the Uchiha _need_ those missions to pay so well anymore. The trust and connections they are gaining more than make up for the loss of income.

"Similar to the Uchiha clan's internal judicial process, but marketed to clients?" Tobirama asks shrewdly, tapping fingertips on his brush. "I assume specialised training and experience is required?"

"The Outguard largely teaches such things in the field through mentoring by more experienced warriors," Madara replies, suppressing the pang of sorrow that arises at being reminded that without this tradition, the Outguard would have lost over half of its collective skill and expertise in the past five years. The sharingan thankfully allows for a great deal of information to be passed on very quickly, even though practice is still required to make use of the details learned in such a manner. Effects on personality can be considerable if too much is passed on at once without a suitable existing foundation, which also takes time to adjust to. "Every mission is different and renegotiating objectives requires a delicate touch." It is something his female subordinates are frequently better at, or at least are better able to learn effectively at a younger age.

"That is possibly something to follow up later, but does not address the immediate issue," Chōtai-dono reminds them gently, "which is to reduce dependence on mercenary missions through diversifying into other forms of income. Perhaps Senju-san would like examples of what can be done?"

Hashirama's eyes brighten. "Tobirama's told me a bit about Uchiha crafts and you've given us such wonderful gifts, but I'd love to hear more!"

Madara settles carefully, flexing his legs so they don't go to sleep from so long sat seiza. Deliberate chakra circulation really does help there; he'll thank his wife afterwards for showing him the trick to it. "Traditionally, the Uchiha clan has always supplemented mission income with charcoal burning and ink-making," he begins, "and we make all our own steel, so as not to give others incentive to profit from our battles." It's bad enough having civilians setting them up to face Senju on missions without having weapons' dealers trying to instigate fights as well.

The faint twitch in Tobirama's chakra implies that is a new concept for him.

"More recently, the Uchiha have branched out into silk cultivation for the civilian market and domestic ceramics, both stoneware and porcelain. There is a certain prestige attached to shinobi-made goods, especially when they hold the maker's mark of a noble clan, so we are able to demand high prices for our efforts." Madara pauses. "As for where to begin, it is best to first discover what crafts individual clansmen and women are already interested in or pursuing as pastimes. The elegant carved transom boards you gifted to my clan, for instance, would certainly be well-received by many nobles: some would buy several different patterned sets, so as to rotate through seasonal designs in public rooms." Wealthy merchants would also buy them, to show of their culturedness and subtlety.

"What should be done if individuals from both clans engage in the same craft?" Chōtai-dono inquires. "Would they be competing?"

"That could escalate unpleasantly," Madara concedes, "but we cannot expect one clan's craftspeople to join the other clan's workshop simply because they got the idea first."

"Pricing rules perhaps, Madara-sama?" Inoshi-san suggests mildly. "So one establishment cannot undercut the other, or else some manner of cooperation in the matter of sales and commissions?"

"We would have to specify what exactly counts as 'the same,'" Tobirama points out with a frown. "Uchiha pottery is very distinctive, so would it be competing to set up a kiln producing a different style altogether?"

This is promising to get _very_ complicated. Madara gratefully accepts a fresh cup of tea from Kita to wet his throat and sets about explaining how the rest of the international ceramics' market defines Uchiha work, with examples of other styles and types, dips briefly into the ink market for further examples and then spends another half-hour laying out how Fire Country's silk market works. By the end of it Hashirama somehow still looks keen and Tobirama had covered six sheets of paper with notes.

"So if we adopt Fire Country's civilian standards for crafts as our baseline, with additional caveats for crafts involving chakra techniques, that will save us having to define all those specifics in detail within the treaty," Hashirama concludes, "and make it easier for people to try different things. And that they don't have to join the other clan's workshop to pursue the same craft, but they _do_ have to work out a common pricing standard, or possibly arrange commissions and sales jointly. But what if somebody from one clan _wants_ to be apprenticed to a master from another clan?"

"The Uchiha clan considers certain craft-focused chakra techniques as hiden," Madara warns, "so those would not accept apprentices unless the student was willing to repudiate their pre-existing connections and be fully adopted into our clan."

Hashirama waves a hand. "Of course nobody's expecting you to teach secret clan techniques to outsiders! But that's not _all_ of the crafts, is it?"

"The Uchiha clan already has rules and guidelines for apprenticeships," Madara concedes, "but we'd probably have to go over them as nobody's ever taken students from other clans before, so the terms may need a little modification to allow for that. I doubt a Senju would be willing to allow myself to stand as their representative in case of out-clan disputes concerning their craft, for instance." He does have an approved outline for such things, but he wants to see what Hashirama is willing to offer before revealing his own solution.

"Provisional agreement to allow students from one clan to pursue crafts or skills taught by members of the other clan, with the proviso that apprenticeship conditions must be discussed beforehand by the master in question and a suitably informed guardian or representative from the student's clan?" Chōtai-dono suggests.

"Sounds good to me!" Hashirama chirps.

Madara frowns. "Does this cover shinobi skills?" He asks suspiciously. That is a far looser definition than he was anticipating.

Both Senju pause. "It _would_ provide a framework for teaching certain interested Senju the previously mentioned Uchiha investigative techniques," Tobirama concedes slowly. "As well as allow certain Senju specialists access to a larger pool of students to choose from to pass on their skills." He makes eye contact across the table. "Our clan has considerably fewer children than your own, Madara-sama, and our focus on individual specialisation means that certain skill-sets are lost and rediscovered every few generations, or can only be learned through studying scrolls."

"So this clause _will_ cover shinobi skills, while excluding clan-specific secret techniques," Madara determines. "With what counts as hiden to be established before teaching begins, between the master in question and their clan head." Jutsu training is entirely within his purview as Outguard Head, so that won't be any trouble at all, and the elders have already pinned down which aspects of which crafts are considered secret. The Senju's strength has always been the sheer variety of their specialisations and it would benefit the Uchiha to learn from them, adding to their own repertoire.

Hashirama glances at his brother for confirmation then nods firmly. "Agreed."

"Agreed," Madara echoes. Now for a much more challenging subject: "How are we going to legislate inter-clan marriages?"

* * *

It takes another whole day of discussion, but eventually it is decided that inter-clan marriages are not restricted or discouraged, and that the children resulting from them will always be considered both Uchiha _and_ Senju, even if they go on to develop one or other clan's bloodline. Neither parent is permitted to limit the child's access to either education or socialisation within the other clan, and may access advocacy and representation for themselves or their child from either clan regardless of their clan of origin. Kita can already tell _that_ is going to be a headache, especially when they get into second-generation descendents, but at least it is a _future_ headache not a present one. There are unlikely to be any cross-clan marriages for some time as people need to get to know each-other first.

Hashirama and her husband then decide they have settled enough terms for the basic inter-clan treaty to work and the discussion moves to the subject of the shared village.

So, of course, the arguments begin again. Much more loudly, because this village is Hashirama and Madara's shared _personal_ dream, but they haven't actually _talked_ about it in nearly fifteen years so their perspectives have diverged significantly.

"–clan is mostly _children,_ Hashirama! I can't just make them leave everything they've ever known because you want me to! If the older ones _choose_ to move out of the clan compound that's different, but I am _not_ forcing the transition on anyone!"

"But Madara how will the children get to experience peace if they're not spending time with _our_ clan's children?"

Kita pours another cup of tea for her husband, making rueful eye-contact with Tobirama across the table as he does likewise for his brother. Chōtai-dono is just sitting back and letting the two Clan Heads argue; it's very clearly personal and therefore not actually worth his time to interrupt. The basics of the treaty are already decided, so whether or not the village goes ahead, the Uchiha and Senju _will_ have peace. The primary benefit offered to the Uchiha by the village is that if the Senju _do_ move in, the clan will become Uchiha vassals by default; she would happily settle just for peace.

Really, it's better that the two most personally powerful men on the continent have their shouting match about their childhood dreams continue uninterrupted, so they can get everything out into the open and then pick up their friendship afterwards. Letting things fester really would not do anyone any good.

"–have a shared shinobi academy then! That way they can meet in a structured environment with adult supervision!"

"Fine. But they have to be eight years old to join."

"Eight? Madara! What if they're geniuses like Tobi was? It should be open to everybody who can pass the entrance tests!"

"No it should _not_!"

After this has escalated into two days of heated and increasingly petty non-stop arguments Chōtai-dono finally decides he's had enough and calls a pause so that both sides can cool off. Again. This time it's an indefinite pause with a range of social activities planned for the next few days, including a few music and theatre performances and a falconry expedition. The Akimichi head also suggests they arrange a few personal meetings amongst themselves, so as to 'compare perspectives in a less formal setting.'

Sitting and listening to petty bickering for two days straight as you are summarily ignored would wear anybody's patience thin.

Kita understands completely why her husband is so upset about Hashirama's stubbornness, but also why Chōtai-dono is essentially telling them to grow up and listen to each-other in full before objecting to the other person's perspective. The problem is that the subject matter is far too dear to her husband's heart for him _not_ to get upset when Hashirama complains about his priorities and the changes Madara has made to their shared dream since he was eleven.

It says a lot about Hashirama really that he's _not_ made any significant changes to that dream since he was eleven.

The musical performance is very good, although Kita attends it alone and returns to find Madara fuming almost literally after a visit by his friend. Deciding that enough is enough, she corners Yōko and asks her to write an invitation for both Senju brothers to visit her the day after tomorrow while her husband will be out hawking and then goes to offer a distraction.

"Madara, we haven't really had a chance to do any sharingan training yet."

Her husband stills, shoulders loosening slightly as he turns away from where he was brooding irritably on the engawa. "No, we haven't," he agrees, chakra cooling slightly, "and I do owe Sahoro and Sakurajima further lessons as well."

"I've not committed to anything tomorrow," Kita offers. "We could make a day of it."

"That sounds like an excellent idea. Hikaku can help; he's not familiar with the intricacies of the various lineages, but some of the exercises are fairly universal and he can monitor chakra flow." Madara's face softens, setting his annoyance aside in favour of a responsibility he actively enjoys. "The Akimichi have already arranged a training field for us; I will ask them for complete privacy tomorrow, so we are not disturbed."

"Is there anything we could do this evening?" Kita asks. The weather's getting steadily hotter and at this rate they're going to be winding up the negotiations in yukata, no matter how inappropriately informal that would be, but the early mornings and late evenings are far more pleasant. She's looking forward to the summer rains starting; it won't be long now as rice planting is well under way.

"Well I know you've been doing the meditation and basic Mangekyō exercises mornings and evenings," Madara muses, wandering back in through the shōji and gently cradling her hands in his, "so how about we both change into something more practical and use the training field to have a look at how much that has improved your control already? Your basic technique is much more, ah _flashy_ than Sahoro's or Sakurajima's after all; I can test them both indoors."

Kita glares at him. It's not _her_ fault her basic manifestation is so large and ostentatious! "I will bite you," she threatens.

"I'm terrified," her husband deadpans, amusement crinkling in the corners of his eyes. "I'd better put my armour on so as not to lose an arm."

"Yes, you really had." Kita pulls away and stomps off with her nose in the air, both pleased by his improved mood and annoyed by his teasing. Nobody is _ever_ going to let the arm thing drop, are they?

His chuckles are nice to hear though, despite her being the butt of the joke. The gentle flicker of joy lingers in his chakra as he follows her into the bedroom and changes out of his silk hitatare as she removes her own formal attire behind her screen. Kita hadn't actually realised until they were preparing for this treaty that Uchiha work-wear is essentially hitatare, if modified slightly for shinobi comfort; it casts the entire clan in a new light, to realise that their daily working dress is a relic of more formal times, specifically intended to be worn under armour. The samurai greaves have been replaced by fireproof leg wraps and sleeves are less baggy so that similarly fireproof armguards can be worn, but little else has changed. The armour the clan's warriors wear over it has been pared down to be suitably form-fitting and involves far more oiled leather than braided silk, but its origins are clear to see.

There is so much about her daily life that sets her clan apart, revealing history and status that she has never previously noticed because it is all so familiar.

Once she is wearing battledress and has changed her hairstyle into something more resilient and practical she steps out from behind the screen, where Madara is still only half-dressed. Specifically, he's naked from the waist up and testing a shoulder seam with both hands, frowning slightly at the offending garment.

"That doesn't look much like armour, husband," she teases gently, stepping closer so she can poke him in the ribs.

"You're far less likely to savage me like this though," he teases back, glancing up from the suspect seam.

"Maybe," Kita concedes, eyes roaming over his upper body; she _does_ like the view. "But I'd still bite you. Definitely." There's a lot on display that she'd enjoy sinking her teeth into. _Has_ in fact sunk her teeth into on multiple occasions, if not recently.

Her husband's face goes pink. "Here, I'm not convinced the seam will hold," he says, pushing the shirt at her and turning away to find a different one. Kita takes a moment to admire all those glorious back muscles –yum– then drops her eyes to the garment in her hands. When she pulls on the neckline and sleeve it does shift slightly, so she turns it inside out; sure enough, part of the stitching has frayed unevenly. Going by the location relative to the other seams, probably due to friction from the armour regularly worn over it; padding only does so much.

"The sleeve needs taking out and re-setting," she agrees, setting the shirt aside as Madara wraps a different one around himself and fastens the ties.

Her husband nods. "I'll put it aside; if Yōko wants to fix it she can, but I'm not going to expect it. She's got far more important things to do and I brought spares." They both brought most of their respective summer wardrobes; one shirt isn't going to be a critical loss. Especially not _that_ shirt. It's not exactly formalwear.

"I might mend it this evening."

Madara eyes her dubiously as he tucks the shirt into his waistband, adjusting the knots accordingly. "Kita-koi, your eyes are going to _ache_ come evening."

Ah yes. Mangekyō training at its least enjoyable and no Yori here to soothe the pain. Yōko is good, but she's not _as_ good. "Point to my husband."

"One thing at a time, hm?" He kisses her forehead, then puts on his own armguards. "Let's go."

"Just let me grab my sandals." She's hardly going to wear her zori for training.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The song in this chapter is original and my own.

Tobirama is deeply suspicious of Kita-san's motives for inviting Hashirama to tea, _especially_ since he knows Madara is going to be out hawking with Akimichi-sama. But between his brother's distressed return from trying to talk to the Uchiha Head yesterday –which ended with two of the Uchiha generals hauling his brother out of the guesthouse by force after Madara yelled at him to leave and he didn't– and the entire Uchiha contingent being 'unavailable' today –they are training and interrupting _that_ is certainly grounds for terminal offense– Hashirama is now truly and genuinely upset about the possibility of the village not working out. Tobirama has already been subjected to a long, rambling monologue of how without actual cohabitation and shared goals the treaty –which _is_ a good treaty, to tell the truth– will eventually break down.

His brother's fears do make sense. But Madara's defensiveness also makes sense: most of his clan is underage, they're _vulnerable_ and now with the treaty negotiations everybody knows it. Of _course_ he wants to protect them and make sure they stay where he can see them for a few years, until they're older, stronger and better able to make mature choices, such as _not_ stabbing Hashirama in the kidneys when they see him. Of _course_ Madara doesn't want to expose his clan's children to the people who have orphaned them.

Hashirama quietly concedes this point when Tobirama makes it, then wanders off into the garden to cry privately over the orphan numbers Madara threw in his face _again_ yesterday. Tobirama is then forced to remember that yes, his brother _does_ care about other people; he's just obstinate, idealistic and regularly fails to think things through before throwing himself headlong into commitment. He also fails to recognise most days that the rest of the world is generally not as willing to let go of the past as he is.

Hashirama believes whole-heartedly that if he pushes hard enough then everything _will_ be fine, that he can _make_ it fine. Which it won't and he can't, but Tobirama's long since given up on getting his brother to see reason there. Going by Madara's arguments he knows that about Hashirama too, and the way Kita-san has behaved during negotiations so far –calm, never surprised and nudging her husband at specific points so he takes a deep breath, settles his chakra and rewords his argument through gritted teeth– implies she also has noticed.

Which makes this invitation all the more suspicious. It is a very short step between knowing how somebody thinks and manipulating that to benefit you, and Kita-san is without question far more ruthlessly pragmatic than her husband where Hashirama's blatant attachment to both Madara and the prospect of peace is concerned; she balances out her spouse's hot temper and passionate sincerity with watchful silence, nigh-interminable patience and skilful machination.

Tobirama really wishes Mito were here; she is far more skilled in this kind of social subtlety than he is and Hashirama actually listens to her. However his brother decided not to bring his wife with them to the negotiations and so her absence is also on Hashirama's head.

He will nonetheless do what he can.

* * *

Madara hadn't expected the opportunity to go hawking during negotiations, so hasn't brought any of his own gear with him. Chōtai-dono is however a very gracious host and lends him a glove as well as the assistance of one of his falconers. If he were at home with his own birds and gear he wouldn't _need_ this deferent Yamanaka to carry hood, lure, preening tool and feed box, but he is not at home and these hawks do not know him, so he will have to be gracious.

The Akimichi have markedly more birds than the Uchiha do; hawking is expensive, and while money is no longer so tight and there are empty rooms in the clan mews, neither Madara nor Hiuchi, the long-retired Outguard veteran who cares for his ladies, have had the time to raise another bird from the egg in over seven years. Madara however does not comment, simply allowing Yamanaka Shida to show him which of his host's birds he may choose from.

There are several sparrowhawks of various breeds and two peregrine falcons, as well as a single goshawk, but the goshawk is young and clearly male, so not large enough to take substantial prey. His guide answers his questions about each bird in turn, making his way along the mews in an unhurried fashion.

The last keeping room houses a hawk-eagle. She's large, glossy-feathered and sharp-eyed; Madara likes her immediately. "What's her name?"

"This is Tenka, Madara-sama," his guide says. "She has a fondness for hares, but will also take geese and all manner of smaller waterfowl as well."

A good name and clearly an eager hunter as well; Madara walks up to her. She watches him fearlessly, head cocked on one side. "I will take her," he decides. "Bring another bird of your choice and a field stand." It may be that Tenka refuses to fly, in which case it would be best to have a backup bird. It is good to have another bird anyway: if Tenka catches something early in the day she may not want to fly again and this is a sporting outing, not a subsistence hunt. They will be spending the whole day out with the birds, not coming home as soon as they've caught as much as he and Hiuchi can comfortably carry and the birds have tired.

Madara's hawks are appreciated by the wider clan despite the expense of housing them because they let him hunt in the winter, adding game to everyone's diet, and drive the cranes and geese away from the fields during summer and autumn so none of the harvest is lost. Hiuchi also regularly exercises the ladies over the fields, just to make sure the local wildlife doesn't get any bright ideas.

Madara unties the red leash and keeps his arm utterly steady as the massive bird hops onto his wrist; the first lesson in falconry is staying grounded and still, so that the bird on your arm is not jarred while you stand and walk. He can keep his wrist dead-level even at a chakra-enhanced run; Tenka may well be heavier than either of his ladies, but she's not going to strain him. Not even after a full day of running around the countryside.

Tenka eyes him; Madara eyes her back, letting his eyes bleed red. Sure enough, the subtle challenge in her posture subsides entirely; much better. She's tall enough to take his eye out if she decides to go for his face, so better to ensure there's going to be none of that before they even start. Evidently she's a very spirited bird, but well-trained enough to be suitable for Chōtai-dono to lend to an experienced guest.

He ties her to his wrist, coils the leash into his left hand then walks out of the keeping room; he will have to put a hood on her before leaving the courtyard the mews are built around, so the bustle and distraction of them processing out into the countryside doesn't get her over-excited. However Shida will need to fetch a suitably-sized hood and sort out another bird as well; he will probably call a junior assistant to carry the stand and bring a live dove too, since Tenka is large enough to eat a whole one all by herself rather than being satisfied with meat pieces and organs.

Tenka ducks her head and preens as they wait. Madara takes the opportunity to talk to her, so she will become more familiar with his voice before he attempts to fly her.

A little while later Shida returns with a peregrine on his wrist and a teenage apprentice at his heels. The apprentice is carrying a dismantled stand on his back and has a wrapped dove hanging from his obi cords; Tenka immediately shows considerable interest. The falconer offers Madara a hood sized for a hawk-eagle; Madara slips it neatly over Tenka's head, tugging lightly on the drawstrings so it won't fall off.

"Is everybody else ready?" He asks.

"Almost, Madara-sama; if you would step this way?"

Madara follows the falconer and his apprentice out of the courtyard, towards the bustle of the hawking party. He wonders how many Akimichi –beyond Chōtai-dono and his son Chōkō– will be joining them.

* * *

The tea in the Uchiha-occupied guesthouse is informal, Kita-san dressing down to the level of his and Hashirama's borrowed kimono and serving tea straight out of an iron kettle in the main room of the guest house. There is also a bowl of senbei and a plate of Akimichi sweets on a small rotating stand; Tobirama reaches for a sweet and then pauses as the design on the border of the dish registers.

"Fun, isn't it?" Kita-san says archly. The plate is olive green, decorated around the rim with a succession of black and white koi… except that one of the koi is a finely-rendered skeleton.

It's a joke plate; Hashirama notices and laughs out loud. "Oh, how lovely! Where did you get this, Kita-chan?"

"My husband painted it, Hashirama-kun," Kita-san says warmly. "He's done a few recently, now that he has the time. Patterns that purport to be identical frustrate him because his sharingan reveals all the inconsistencies, but slight variations are soothing and deliberately jarring contrasts amuse him."

Hashirama clutches at his teacup, face and chakra equally alight with wonder and joy as he lightly spins the plate on the stand, making the koi appear to move. "Madara painted this? It's so delicate! So fun! Look Tobi, the koi swim!"

It is indeed _very_ clever: an optical illusion made startling by the regular flash of skeleton. Tobirama can see the Uchiha clan using these as prestige gifts to allies and never selling any; it is their Clan Head's personal handiwork and restricting access adds significantly to its value. "It is very charming, Kita-san."

He's not going to use 'chan' without permission and that she has responded to Hashirama's familiarity by using 'kun' is both a reminder of her significantly higher rank and faintly ominous.

"So formal, Tobi," his brother teases gently.

"If Tobirama-san in uncomfortable with familiarity I will not expect it of him, Hashirama-kun."

Oh yes, she is _definitely_ up to something. "Thank you, Kita-san." He takes one of the senbei as an excuse not to say anything else; they are very pleasant, crisp and airy with a subtle flavour.

Conversation starts out light, then Kita mentions bonsai in relation to some unspecified family member and Hashirama begins talking trees. Kita-san is a very attentive listener, but then again she's not heard all this a thousand times before like Tobirama has; bonsai is one of Hashirama's lifelong hobbies and he talks about it _constantly_ at home.

Tobirama tunes out the happy chatter on watering requirements and sunlight exposure and pours another round of tea; this is informal so he's not being unforgivably rude by participating in hosting duties. Kita-san flashes a smile at him before picking up her cup again and turning back to his brother with a question about pruning.

This could go on for hours. Tobirama doubts it _will_ though, because for all the honest pleasure radiating gently from Kita-san's chakra as Hashirama starts digging into the intricacies of how different species of tree react to the bonsai process and which ones are most responsive to wiring, she is yet to touch on her reasons for inviting them in the first place. He really doubts it was for light conversation and advice on growing miniature trees.

"Do you have many bonsai trees, Hashirama-kun?"

"Oh yes! I have a whole garden; Baachan made some seals to keep them watered and Tobi topped them up before we left, so I know they'll be okay until I get back to them. I started growing them when I was learning to use my mokuton, as a control exercise, but now it's just for fun really. I like trees, they're so restful."

"I assume your bloodline lets you cheat a little then, speeding the aging process?" Kita-san inquires with a conspiratorial wave of her fan. Hashirama laughs a little guiltily.

"Yes, and it makes them far more forgiving of mistakes made in potting and training! But I've learned to rely on it less and I haven't cheated at _all_ with my newest trees." He rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, not yet; if any of them start looking sad or get sick I might; I hate letting anything die when I can do something about it."

"You have a tender heart, Hashirama-kun," Kita-san notes gently.

"I just wish Madara understood that I just want to _help_ ," his brother goes on and oh, _now_ Tobirama sees the shape of Kita-san's plan: to wait for his brother to bring up her husband for himself, thus making Hashirama the supplicant and giving her the advantage. "I want this treaty to succeed and for the next generation to live free from war and he just isn't _listening_! We made all these plans when we were children together and he's just stopped caring about so many of those things! Kita-chan, could you talk to him for me? Please?"

Tobirama does everything possible to distance himself from this deeply impolitic request without actually moving or speaking, both of which would draw his hostess's attention to him. Hashirama is asking a _significantly_ higher-ranking woman to manipulate her husband for his benefit and all Tobirama can do is wince at the _utter_ impropriety.

"What is he saying specifically that you find so unreasonable, Hashirama-kun?" Kita-san asks mildly, making earnest eye contact. Her chakra is well controlled, so Tobirama can't be sure his reading of her emotions is authentic. She seems... unduly calm for having just been so comprehensively insulted.

"I really don't understand why he won't let me build the village!" Hashirama blurts out, eyes imploring. "It would take _minutes_ , Kita-chan! I have lots of practice from when Tobi was experimenting with his time-space seals and kept destroying load-bearing walls by accident" –the traitor; Tobirama resolves to pay him back later– "and yes I _do_ understand that it wouldn't be comfortable for those Uchiha with sensory training, but that's hardly _everybody_!"

Kita-san waves her fan contemplatively. "Have you ever built a house, Hashirama-san? The normal way, I mean; _built_ it with your own hands rather than growing it with your chakra?"

Hashirama blinks. "No?"

She smiles brightly at him, eyes crinkling over the top of the fan. "Building a house is a community experience, Hashirama-kun: twenty or more people get together to cut pillars and boards and haul stone and disagree over how best to lay the foundations before eventually deferring to the most experienced person present, food is eaten together, everybody works side by side for hours, joking and singing, and at the end there is a solid foundation with pillars set into it. Then it is time for outer walls and a roof over the top, and all this time women have been making shōji and tatami as craftspeople have been carving and painting fusuma, so that once the frame is complete the floorboards can be put in, doors and partitions can be installed and the house completed. Then whoever the house is for will be forever surrounded by proof of the loving care of their community, the evidence that together they can do great things."

Hashirama is _entranced_. "Oh! Madara should have _said_!"

"He probably expected you to understand already," Kita-san comments gently. "After all, being a shinobi clan means we can hardly bring in outsiders to build our homes for us." There's a rebuke under her words, but his brother misses it in his newfound enthusiasm. Tobirama does not.

"So Madara wants the people in our village to build their houses _together_ , so that everyone can help each-other and make friends! So we can get to know each-other off the battlefield and make jokes and eat together and–" Hashirama beams, chakra fluttering with joy. "Kita-chan, thank you _so much_ for explaining!" He bows, far too low for a friendly tea. Tobirama despairs of his brother for the _ten-thousandth_ time.

"It was my pleasure, Hashirama-kun," Kita-san demurs, reaching over to tap the side of the kettle then removing it from the small brazier and setting another, almost identical pot in its place and filling it with water, then feeding the fire. "Have another senbei? Yōko-chan made them this morning."

Hashirama happily sits up and takes a rice cracker; Tobirama had assumed the food was all contributed by the Akimichi, but on reflection these senbei are almost identical to the ones he ate while a hostage. At least now he knows what Kita-san's agenda is: to smooth over the ongoing misunderstandings plaguing the treaty process, preferably in her husband's favour.

Annoyingly, she's right about the house issue: it _will_ build community between their clans _if_ everybody from both clans pitches in to do the building work _together_. It will also give people a more proprietary interest in the village: those will be _their_ houses, that _they_ built, and they will be correspondingly less eager to do anything that might result in damaging them or having to abandon them. Such as picking fights in or around them.

Tobirama takes another rice cracker; they are just the thing on a warm day like today.

"Is there anything else I can clarify for you, Hashirama-kun?"

His brother nods eagerly. "Oh yes, Kita-chan! It's the education issue: we always agreed that it would be good to train everybody together before sending them on missions, with set standards so that no child would be unprepared! But now he's talking about not giving the children _any_ training until they're older and putting in age limits. I just don't understand? If they can pass the tests, shouldn't they be allowed in? Or to graduate early? The whole point of the shared education system was to make sure everybody was skilled enough when they went into the field, so why hold people back when they have the skills?"

Kita-san hums thoughtfully. "The issues there are at least twofold, Hashirama-kun. Firstly, do you know _why_ Tajima-sama rushed his two surviving sons onto the battlefield so young?"

Hashirama looks puzzled. "I just assumed it was because they're both so strong, Kita-chan." That was after all why Butsuma had pushed _them_ onto the battlefield.

Kita-san shakes her head, sorrow tinting her chakra. "In the autumn before Madara turned ten, Senju Kikuno died." How is their mother's death relevant to this? "With his wife's death, Senju Butsuma immediately abandoned his marriage treaty with the Hatake, that there would be no more targeting of other clans' children. One of the first to die was Madara and Izuna's younger brother Yahiko; he was seven, carrying a letter to a nearby village. In the winter that followed, a Senju party snuck into our clan compound one evening and murdered Tajima-sama's two youngest sons in their beds: Myōkō was five and Saburō three. Hikaku's two-year-old sister Tokumi also had her throat slit as she napped beside the iori."

Tobirama feels vaguely sick. Killing trained shinobi on the field is one thing, even though he dislikes fighting those who are truly young, but murdering babies in their beds? On his father's orders, no less? Hashirama meanwhile has gone grey and looks even sicker.

"With the clan compound proven without question _unsafe_ for his sons, Tajima-sama chose to keep them where he could see them," Kita concludes quietly. "Which had the added benefit of not having to force his men to fight Butsuma's equally young sons; even with vengeance to drive them, a good number of our clansmen were reluctant to attack children without good reason and the need to defend their leader's heirs proved motivating." Where the Senju had certainly shown no such qualms, went unsaid but no less clearly heard.

"Excuse me Kita-chan," Hashirama mumbles before fleeing the room, nausea and horror loud in his chakra signature.

Kita calmly removes the kettle from the miniature brazier and pours the water over the used tea leaves in the other pot. Tobirama meanwhile has a lot to think about; he's read his mother's marriage treaty, but he'd thought his father had broken it in retaliation for Kawarama's death. Not that he'd _instigated_ the conflict that then claimed his two youngest sons' lives little more than a year later; that he'd _deliberately_ provoked the Uchiha clan to outrage and brutal slaughter. He'd done that and _still_ pushed all his sons onto the battlefield right after, leading directly to both Kawarama _and_ Itama's deaths and firmly alienating the Senju from their Hatake allies.

"How is this relevant to the matter of education, Kita-san?" He asks quietly.

"I will explain once your brother returns, Tobirama-san." The empty kettle is set aside on a stand and the brewing tea replaced over the heat, but set differently so it will maintain heat rather than become hotter.

Tobirama's eyes slide back to the koi plate; the fish skeleton now seems more ominous than comedic, a reminder of the constant presence of death and the ephemeral nature of joy.

Kita pours more tea. Hashirama returns, chakra still unsettled but face freshly washed.

"So, the education issue," Kita continues. "I'm not sure if you're aware, Hashirama-kun, but Uchiha are usually Yin-heavy in chakra makeup. Something to do with our bloodline; the particulars don't really matter, but practically it means our children tend to develop intellectually first, then physically and emotionally later. This means that a child may perform very well on tests, which have specific correct answers that can be learned by rote, but poorly when applying that knowledge in real-life situations; which as you might imagine, would have disastrous results if that child were on a mission at the time. Poor stamina can also be an issue; I myself did not develop a mature chakra pool until I was almost eighteen."

"So Madara's worried that even the children who have the knowledge and skills to do well wouldn't manage to _apply_ those skills effectively until they were older?" Hashirama asks, his determination to understand clear in his tone. "And that their unbalanced chakra would limit their ability to perform jutsu?" Tobirama can see considerably more implications than that; low Yang energy means reduced physical energy, which in turn means young Uchiha would be less capable in taijutsu than similarly-aged Senju and likely less able to keep up in the field. More likely to succumb to chakra exhaustion too, which could very easily be fatal. Senju tend to have higher Yang, so have the opposite problem: lots of physical energy and limited patience for intellectual pursuits until fully mature. Tobirama is an exception, his mother's blood having imparted higher Yin levels so his chakra has always been unusually well- balanced.

Kita hums. "Could you describe to me the existing Senju training program for children, Hashirama-san?"

"Er, well, I can't remember ever _not_ being trained," Hashirama admits sheepishly, "so it probably starts very young! I was working on mokuton starting when I was seven, even though I didn't get good enough to use it on the battlefield until I was fourteen. But Kaasan started Tobirama on kunai when he was four and Tōsan started both of us on swords when we were eight, and Tobi started elemental training when he was… twelve, otōto?"

"Eleven, anija. The basic preliminary strengthening exercises and affinity tests first, then actual jutsu once I was twelve." It had taken that long for it to be evident that he had enough chakra for such training to be considered worthwhile.

Kita nods acceptingly. "Among Uchiha physical training traditionally begins at eight, although basics such as flexibility, dexterity and meditation to become more familiar with one's chakra generally begin earlier. Elemental training is standard, along with knife-work and shuriken; otherwise, only warrior lineages or those interested in joining the Outguard pursue it further. Actual field training begins at fourteen, when a clansman or clanswoman interested in joining the Outguard may apply to do so. Traditionally this would be followed by six months of intensive training under a mentor, but my husband has lengthened it to a full two years under a rotation of sensei to instil a range of disciplines."

Eight is… unexpectedly late to be starting the basics. "But I saw younger children training," Tobirama points out.

Kita eyes him blandly over her tea. "I did say _traditionally_ , Tobirama-san; in light of changes to Senju battle strategy, the clan has been forced to start training much younger, in the physical disciplines at least, so as to ensure the children can hold off an enemy should they find themselves in difficulty without an adult present." In other words, that is _his_ fault.

"So Madara wants to keep the traditional Uchiha education system," Hashirama concludes, "because that's what he's used to and he knows it works."

Kita shifts. "I assume so, Hashirama-kun. It also has the benefit of ensuring there will be _no_ child soldiers, as our children will not be permitted anywhere near the battlefield."

"But, but what do those children _do_ all day, Kita-chan? I know Tobi got terribly bored and that was _with_ being allowed to train!"

Kita snorts. "Chores, Hashirama-kun; they clean and cook and garden and care for younger siblings and cousins. They also play games, learn to read and write kanji, find a craft they like, make friends and run around in the woods." She raises a teasing eyebrow. "How many Senju know all their kanji, Hashirama-kun?"

His brother shuffles and drops his eyes with an embarrassed smile; the implications there are that _most_ Uchiha know their kanji. Or at least enough to get by; among the Senju kanji are only taught to medics, higher-ranking warriors and clan heirs. More than half of the clan only know katakana and a handful of name-related kanji, although the women all read hiragana.

"I believe there is merit to putting age limits on shinobi skills, anija," Tobirama offers. It will give them the moral high-ground if nothing else, and it isn't like they will be hurting for numbers once the treaty is in place. "Just the weapons training and external chakra manipulation; delaying those also provides more time for learning supplementary skills, improving chakra reserves and finding a suitable specialty. Not having children in the field also means fewer expenses in terms of armour fitting and eliminates the awkwardness of having to adjust taijutsu styles as people grow." Children have to aim _up_ on the battlefield while adults aim _out_ or _down_ and it's really hard to train oneself out of those early habits. The only reason he and Hashirama have struggled so little in that respect is that they were mainly fighting people their own age. The Uchiha made sure of that.

His brother glances at him, lips twitching into a fond smile. "You like the idea, don't you Tobi? You'd have had so much more time to learn fūinjutsu properly if Tōsan hadn't been sending you out on missions." He turns back to Kita. "Okay, I'll ask Madara about details and how he thinks that would work; it does sound good! I'm just not sure what it would look like." His smile widens into a grin. "But clearly Madara _does_ and that's great! A village where children get to be children for longer will be wonderful! I can't wait!"

"Maybe you could take a walk in the wider gardens with my husband tomorrow to discuss your perspectives, then if that goes well, speak to Akimichi-san together about restarting negotiations in a few days' time?" Kita suggests mildly. Not once has she lost control of the conversation; Tobirama is grudgingly impressed.

"That's an excellent idea, Kita-chan!" Hashirama chirps, then sobers abruptly. "You've given me a lot to think about. Thank you for being so patient with me, Kita-chan." He bows just deep and long enough to convey genuine sincerity. "Madara is truly fortunate to have you as his wife."

Kita snaps up her fan to cover her face, but not quite fast enough to hide the hint of blush. "You're very kind, Hashirama-kun," she murmurs, eyes downcast.

"Thank you for the tea and the sweets!" Hashirama adds brightly as he straightens up, "but we should probably be going now. I don't want to take up any more of your time."

Oh look, his brother proving that he _does_ know how to behave in polite company and usually just can't be bothered. Wonderful. Tobirama bows briefly.

"Thank you for the tea, Kita-san; it was very pleasant to eat Uchiha senbei again."

"You are very welcome to take the rest of them with you, Tobirama-san," Kita assures him, lowering her fan as the blush fades. "I hope the rest of your day is pleasant and productive."

"I'm sure it will be, Kita-san." He still has no idea of what her agenda might be, beyond the obvious of ensuring the treaty progresses smoothly and Hashirama does not overly antagonise her husband. However he is equally sure that she _does_ have one.

He will have to keep watching her and see what she lets slip.

* * *

Madara returns from the hawking expedition in excellent spirits, talking animatedly to an unfamiliar Nara who has a sparrowhawk on his wrist, feeding the large eagle on his own wrist with bloody bits of meat and organ. He sees Kita waiting in the courtyard and wraps up his conversation, hurrying forwards and turning so he can kiss her on the cheek without crowding his bird. "Wife," he murmurs warmly.

"Who is this lovely lady?" She asks.

Her husband smiles. "Where are my manners? Kita-san, this is Tenka; she's a mountain hawk-eagle. Tenka, this is my wife Kita-san."

"A pleasure," Kita says lightly, making the required brief eye-contact with the bird then turning her attention back to her husband. "Will the dinner table be supplied with your successes?"

"Not tonight, but most certainly tomorrow," Madara says, joy suffusing his chakra. "Tenka and I caught a heron, two pheasants _and_ a cuckoo; she's eating the cuckoo. I also flew Hikama, a peregrine falcon, and we caught several partridges."

"Congratulations on your many successes!" Kita says earnestly. That's a really excellent hunt, especially with unfamiliar birds.

"And what mischief have you been getting up to in my absence, beloved?" He asks her shrewdly, eyes still alight with the thrill of indulging his favourite pastime.

"I invited Hashirama to visit and managed to get him to see your perspective on both the building front and the education one," she tells him quietly, aware of the people bustling around them to hand off game to the cooks and carry the birds back to the mews.

Her husband raises an eyebrow, his chakra twitching curiously but his body rock-steady. "My delightfully devious wife seizing the advantage," he says dryly. "Thank you, Kita; I appreciate you putting up with him for me."

"He's not as pushy as he used to be," Kita concedes, "and I'm a little more practiced in fortifying myself now. Those specialist meditation techniques you showed me have definitely helped." Mentioning her Mangekyō more explicitly in this setting would be unwise.

"Really, those help?" Madara looks thoughtful, glancing briefly over at the Yamanaka approaching them and holding out his arm so the falconer can retrieve the hawk-eagle from his wrist. "It might be wise to add them to regular Outguard training then, so that everyone can reap the benefits." Unspoken is that, should the village work out, more clan members will _need_ to be able to resist Hashirama at close range.

"I will leave that to your judgement," Kita concedes, turning to watch the very large bird of prey be carried off. "Do you think Chōtai-dono would be willing to display some of his birds for me to draw?" She has got much better at hawks and other birds over the years, and they provide just as much inspiration for kimono patterns and embroidery designs as the intricate moth paintings Aburame Akitsu still sends her. The Aburame also pay very well for the moth-figured silk the Widows' Association produces, which is very satisfying

"I am sure he would be both delighted and flattered," Madara says agreeably. "We could ask now, if you like? He's just over there." He nods towards where their host is chatting to Yamanaka Inosuke.

Kita suspects the Yamanaka use their patron's hawks for more than just hunting; a bird of prey would likely be well-suited for spying through with their mind techniques, and having hand-reared birds to practice on is much safer than using wild ones.

"That would please me very much," she concedes.

Madara grins and turns, leading the way over without drawing ahead so that his upper arm brushes her shoulder with every step. He has blood on his bare hand and glove, more bloody droplets and various down feathers clinging to his hitatare –not his indigo battledress, but a fine linen outfit in ruddy purple resist-printed with hollyhock leaves– and is blatantly, irrepressibly content.

Kita could almost kiss their host for arranging this. This is the longest she's seen her husband stay relaxed while conscious in _months_.

* * *

Kita's intervention leads to Hashirama _requesting_ they talk about their respective hopes and goals for the village the following morning –in itself a big step up from showing up on the doorstep of the Uchiha's guesthouse and expecting to be let in– and his friend asking lots more questions on their walk around the Akimichi's gardens about _why_ Madara wants to do things one way rather than the other.

It's a far better talk than he's had with Hashirama since they were both eleven, so when Chōtai-dono suggests over dinner that they re-open the diplomatic negotiations in two days' time, Madara agrees easily. The delay gives him time to consider some of Hashirama's observations –such as how to fit tailored elemental training into the curriculum, seeing as teaching everybody to shape fire like the Uchiha do won't work for the Senju, who are more attuned to Earth and Water– and also to train his Mangekyō students more. Kita has indeed improved significantly, but she's still a good way off full proficiency and with Yōko being less adept with the healing jutsu they have to space out the practical lessons more, so as to avoid inflicting permanent damage.

Madara is starting to suspect that it is extended usage coupled with lack of proper medical care that causes the visual deterioration; overusing chakra to enhance muscles is damaging, hence why learning to moderate and manage the flow is important along with slowly building up a tolerance, and why a high-speed run at the limit of someone's abilities can leave a person sore and bedridden for half a day afterwards. Mangekyō usage leaves the eye sore even if proper training can prevent them from bleeding outright, but the soreness isn't enough to force a person to rest until the pain stops and so damage compounds damage.

He's going to have to write another scroll, isn't he, or at least collaborate with Yori to test his theory. Perhaps with her help they can pin down the exact _nature_ of the damage inflicted? He knows it's chakra related, but there's a notable discrepancy in how much chakra he uses for Mangekyō techniques and how much chakra such a technique should theoretically _require_. The sharingan has always been a bit mysterious even for the Uchiha themselves, but this is a bit odder than how the three tomoe in their eyes manage to appear to _rotate_ despite the muscles of the iris being firmly anchored. That's just a pigmentation trick: Uchiha irises are a like octopus skin, changing colour according to internal chakra patterns, and the spinning tomoe effect assists in shaping complex genjutsu. More tomoe result in finer chakra manipulation, but the sharingan only has three in each eye at full maturity; Mangekyō _does_ add a higher degree of control in genjutsu, but it does so at the cost of the health of the eye itself and is therefore a very poor trade-off.

Still, that is something else for after the treaty is signed. First he has to make sure the foundations of their village are set and agreed upon so that nobody can undermine them later when time has dulled the horror of war.

This time the Senju gift the Uchiha with a beautiful bronze brazier with an openwork lid inlayed in patterns of silver, gold and black; Madara admires it sincerely and discovers that it is the work of a famous master craftsman. In return he presents them with two embroidered silk wall hangings that Kita made, showing the classic scenes of Ame-no-Uzume dancing on an upturned washtub and taking off her layered kimono as the other gods laugh, along with Amaterasu emerging from the cave upon hearing that laughter and seeing herself in the mirror of Yata. His wife had made them specifically to give away, although she probably expected them to be presented to the daimyo or some other longstanding clan ally.

The Senju are impressed and very appreciative. Negotiations proceed from there, far more smoothly than the shouting matches of the previous week; they actually manage to pin down multiple points on the first day.

Rather than let Hashirama decide that they've covered all the necessary points now that housing has been conceded and the basic curriculum for the desired shinobi academy has been tentatively approved, Madara moves onto sanitation and piped water, which require him to do a _lot_ more explaining and for Kita to produce various reference books and scrolls along with the maps. Tobirama's response to the map of the prospective village area is to glare at it for a few seconds, chakra seething in envy, then politely request a copy so that he can take appropriate notes. Madara obligingly dashes off a basic copy of the terrain map, then has Kita get out the translucent washi overlays to show their plans for roads, water pipes, suitable bridge locations and the sewers and water treatment works.

Hashirama confesses to knowing nothing at all about _any_ of this, so they adjourn early so the Senju contingent can read the reference texts and bring their own contributions to the treaty in the morning. Going by the look on Tobirama's face, he's expecting to be up most of the night taking notes.

Madara therefore deliberately implies that a single afternoon is insufficient time to make meaningful conclusions and suggests an extra day be granted. This goes down well –although it is clarified that the day will not count as a break in treaty proceedings– and Madara makes the most of this additional free time to read to the crow-brought letters that arrived that morning and pen suitable replies. They're over two weeks into the negotiations and it's looking like they might be able to wrap matters up in another week, which is really promising. Less than a month for a treaty this complex is actually quite impressive.

Reading Izuna's summary of Outguard happenings and decisions he has made, punctuated with news of the girls and details of the results of the most recent pottery firing, is a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Ohabari-oba's letter is considerably denser and more challenging, but at least none of those things require him to _act_ on them; that's her job. She simply prefers to keep him informed so that nobody will be foolish enough to try and get him to countermand one of her decisions, setting them up against each-other.

Kita has a considerably wider range of letters; evidently an accumulation from various out-clan correspondents that have come in over the past fortnight. Holding up a letter to the light, his wife makes a pleased sound in her throat.

"Good news?" Madara asks.

"Mao-chan had her baby; it's a boy and her husband is naming him Bennosuke." Madara assumes it's a childhood name; samurai seem to like renaming their sons upon admitting them to adulthood.

"Do pass on my congratulations; are you sending a gift?" Kita did send a gift when her Hyūga correspondent had a daughter, so it's a reasonable assumption.

"Yes, I have something wrapped already; I just didn't want to send it early, in case something went wrong during or shortly after the birth. I'll write her a letter and have Midori send it by courier along with the gift."

"Anything else interesting?"

"Well I already have four new kimono pattern ideas from Akitsu-chan's latest painting." She holds out the unfurled scroll so he can see; the moth painted on it is large with stunningly intricate patterns on its wings, three obvious pattern variations all in gold, silver and black.

"I'd wear kimono patterned like that; I especially like those spots like abacus beads," Madara says. "Wait, is that an owl moth?" He's seen one of those, although barely for a moment and it was considerably smaller than that picture.

"Yes it is. I like those lines of spots too; it could be interesting to keep the basic pattern and experiment with different colour combinations."

"I'll leave that part to you and the Widows' Association." Madara only ever gets involved when it comes to admiring their completed efforts or offering his personal opinion, on the understanding that they won't do as he says just because he said it. He recognises that most of the women involved have much better taste than he does.

That said, he does enjoy wearing garments that show off their handiwork. That is a small joy of the whole treaty proceedings and he knows quite a few Akimichi –as well as one or two Yamanaka– have been paying close attention to his wardrobe. It is possible that after the treaty is completed and signed they'll end up staying a little longer to arrange more trade with the Akimichi Alliance, which would quite honestly be very welcome as it would enable the clan to buy more of the Yamanaka's dyes in return. Yes, the clan _could_ make their own, but feeding everybody is more important than growing dye-plants and with so few adults, that kind of work is what got set aside first. The clan has money but limited labour, so they buy dyes when they can rather than making their own.

Madara looks forward to when that will no longer be the case, or only be the case with rare dyes. That is at least a decade off though.

"I'm sure we'll have fun with it," his wife says comfortably, setting the scroll aside again.

Of that Madara has no doubt.

* * *

Negotiations over basic services and sanitation in the prospective village go reasonably smoothly –having read the documentation supplied by both Madara and the Nara, Tobirama is fully in agreement that they _need_ to lay out some basic standards– and agreements are made concerning who will be responsible for maintaining them. Actual pipes are metal or ceramic, so will be the Uchiha's responsibility while the Senju will supply half the funds for materials and labour, but actual water and waste management falls to the Senju due to their elemental affinity. All that takes a few days to fully settle due to the complexity of the subject matter, but it _is_ settled and formally laid out on the final document. The next item on the agenda is, of course, governance.

"I do not see why the village should have its own leader," Madara says bluntly. "We have a justice system laid out, we have clarified mission loads and the system of comparisons between our clans to prevent conflict; we even have a shared education system prepared, although it'll probably be a while before our children are ready to learn side by side. Why do we need to appoint a leader? I and the Uchiha Homeguard Head are obviously responsible for the Uchiha in our village and Hashirama is responsible for the Senju. Anyone wishing to negotiate with us will have to present his case to us jointly, and we will decide jointly. Why should one Head be granted authority over the other?" He pauses. "Unless you wish to appoint based on numbers, in which case I would end up leading."

"I thought we could put it to a vote," Hashirama offers.

Madara snorts derisively. "And of course only adults or only shinobi would get to vote; no thank-you."

The reminder that well over half the Uchiha clan is underage is most unwelcome, but it makes Madara's point very clearly; any kind of vote would be fundamentally unfair as the adults from each clan would obviously vote for their own Clan Head.

"So governance is settled," Akimichi-sama says easily, "in that it is not being addressed at this time but may be revisited later?"

"That's fair," Hashirama agrees. "After all, if other clans decide to join our village then we'll have to address it."

"Or civilians under the daimyo's authority," Madara agrees. "Very well, the matter of governance is _postponed_ until it becomes relevant." He hands off the scrolls in front of him to Kita-san, who accepts them and passes him a single, smaller scroll in return. "So now all that remains are the guarantees, penalty clauses and diplomatic sanctions for breaking faith, be it wilfully or by accident."

Tobirama elbows his brother before he can protest. "Setting an example, remember anija?" He mutters; nobody is going to take their treaty seriously unless there are severe penalties for breaking it and politically suitable shows of good faith.

Hashirama sighs. "The standard guarantees for a new treaty between clans traditionally involve alliance marriages, but the Senju clan do not have any women of a suitable age to offer," he says firmly.

Tobirama appreciates very much that his brother is sufficiently self-aware to _not_ offer Tōka, despite her being a prime candidate for an alliance marriage as their first cousin, less than thirty years of age and unmarried. Tōka would murder any husband chosen without her consent, probably in their marriage bed if not during the wedding ceremony. Assuming that Tōka did not murder them _both_ long before that point, Hashirama for suggesting it and Tobirama for not talking his brother out of it. Then again, Tōka recognises that Tobirama has no real power over his older brother, so he _might_ escape such a situation only lightly maimed.

"That will not be an issue; the Uchiha do not offer or expect alliance marriages," Madara says calmly. "However a short-term hostage exchange, maybe half a year as a show of good faith, would achieve much the same result." He glares firmly across the table. "As a show of commitment, I am prepared to offer my general and second in the Outguard, Uchiha Hikaku-san, who is also my first cousin through my father's brother."

Tobirama's gaze shifts to the man in question, who has spent the entire negotiation proceedings sat silently behind and to the left of his Clan Head. Uchiha Hikaku is his age or possibly a little younger, with black hair that lies flat against his head and faint lines bracketing his eyes. He seems utterly at ease with being offered as a hostage to a rival clan, but Tobirama has witnessed him talking worriedly to Madara over meals about the various teenagers in the Uchiha Outguard and knows the man has a very pregnant wife at home, as well as several younger siblings he is responsible for.

He is equivalent in rank and position to Tōka, which does indeed show considerable commitment on the Uchiha side.

"As a show of commitment," Hashirama echoes, "I will be offering my younger brother, Senju Tobirama."

"Anija!" Tobirama manages to keep the word to a furious hiss, but his fingers twitch with the urge to _strangle_ his _blockheaded_ older sibling.

"But Tobi–"

Tobirama turns and makes eye-contact with Madara. "My _apologies_ Madara-sama," he grits out, "but the Senju party have not _discussed_ the possibility of a hostage exchange." He glances at Akimichi-sama. "So I humbly request you would _excuse us_." He makes an effort to keep his chakra suppressed to polite levels, but it _is_ an effort.

"Of course, Senju-san," Madara says mildly. "It is a very sensitive matter, requiring proper thought and consideration."

"We will reconvene tomorrow morning," Akimichi-sama agrees, "and I trust that we will be then able to set out guarantees and penalties without further delay."

"Of course, Akimichi-sama." Tobirama bows over the table, grabs his brother by the sleeve and drags him out of the room, the rest of the Senju party hurrying after them.

"Otōto–"

" _Not_ here," Tobirama growls, keeping his eyes on the hallway ahead. He feels rather than hears his brother deflate, complete with the usual sense of gloom and misery that Hashirama always projects when embarrassed or thwarted; that is as much manipulation as expression of Hashirama's mental state, so he ignores it.

Around a corner, along an open-sided passageway and left at a split in the corridor and they are back at the guesthouse; Ryūsha, Chigi and Yagura all vanish into their shared room, closing the fusuma behind them to create the impression of privacy. Tobirama appreciates their discretion; he lets go of his brother's sleeve and turns on him.

"Anija, what _were_ you thinking! _Why_ would you say that? You didn't even _ask me first_!" His fingers tingle; there's nobody to see him wrap his hands around his brother's throat and _squeeze_ –

Hashirama crumples. "I'm sorry Otōto! I should have asked!" His spine stiffens again and his gaze hardens. "But Tobi, seriously, it _has_ to be you: you understand what's at stake here and I trust you. And you said you got on well with Madara and Kita-chan! That's really important and everybody in the clan looks to you, so if _you_ can get on with them I just _know_ everybody else will follow suit!"

"Anija, that's not a good reason! Tōka would do just as well; _better_ even, as she's Hikaku's equivalent!" Offering him as a hostage implies that Hashirama values him less, that his contributions to the Senju are only those of a third-in-line and that _hurts_. He does so _much_ for his brother, for his clan, he's given _everything_ and he knows his brother doesn't notice all of what he does, but to not value it at all? That _hurts_ when his brother _does_ depend on him to–

"Otōto, _I_ would go if I could," Hashirama pleads, "but that wouldn't show trust. _Please_ Tobi; I'm asking _because_ I value you! You've always taken such good care of me and the clan! Really, it should have been you born first; you'd have been such a good niisan–"

Tobirama loses the rest of that sentence to the icy maw in his gut and the roaring in his ears. A good big brother, _him_? He's _been_ a big brother. He'd been Itama and Kawarama's big brother and look what had happened to _them_! He'd been a _terrible_ big brother, he'd _failed_ as a big brother, if he'd been born first Hashirama would probably be _dead_ –

"Tobi? Otōto?"

He blinks. Hashirama is staring worriedly at him.

"Tobi, have you been getting enough sleep?"

What were they –oh yes, hostages. "You aren't going to change your mind, are you." He knows his brother. Hashirama is stubborn as a mountain range.

His brother's face doesn't lose its concerned cast, but he nods soberly. "It _has_ to be you, Tobirama. You understand; you've _seen_. You _know_ why we have to have peace. For both our clans, and maybe someday with other clans as well."

Tobirama is so _tired_ of his brother depending on him. "Anija, I, _personally_ , killed Kita-san's father. Her _civilian_ father. I'm not sure she even _knows_ but I'm not going to make her feel she has to host me in her home again. _Especially_ if she doesn't know."

His brother's face goes terribly sad, but he doesn't say anything. He just _looks_ at Tobirama with those plaintive doe-brown eyes.

He's never been any good at denying his brother. "Look, anija, I'll tell her today. If after that _she_ doesn't want me on Uchiha clan grounds, you _will_ pick somebody else."

Hashirama nods seriously. "That's fair. I'll start writing a letter to Tōka, so that we don't waste any time if she _does_ say no."

Tobirama sketches a bow. "Thank you, anija. I'll send a message over right away asking to speak to her."

He's fairly sure Kita _will_ say no once she knows, but he's not doing this to get out of being held hostage; he's doing it because Kita deserves to know and deserves to hear it from him. He didn't tell her before because his chakra was sealed and if she'd tried to kill him he wouldn't even have been able to run, and also because he'd been her guest and manners might well have constrained her reactions. Now though that is no longer the case.

"Anija, don't demand sanctions or let the Akimichi penalise the Uchiha if she injures me permanently." The wani transformation is very much on his mind, and he's seen how strong emotions play into the Uchiha activating their bloodline. He's confident he'll be able to get away alive, but 'unscathed' may be asking too much.

"If that's what you want, Tobi," he brother agrees, frowning. "I don't think she will though; she's really kind and patient and she wants peace too."

His brother is an incurable optimist. It is perfectly possible for a person to want peace and also to want vengeance for a dead family member; civilians do it all the time. It's why they hire shinobi assassins rather than personally taking up arms.

* * *

Kita is not sure why Tobirama has requested to speak to her privately, but he mentioned it is 'so that negotiations can continue smoothly' which means she doesn't really have a choice. She is however a little uneasy; the most recent Senju argument was internal, so it should not require Tobirama speaking to her to resolve. Unless he wants her to persuade Madara to refuse to accept him as a hostage for Izuna's sake, but that would be undermining Hashirama's authority and she doesn't think Tobirama has a single subversive bone in his body. Not where his brother is concerned at least.

Madara raises an eyebrow at the missive, but agrees to take Sahoro and Sakurajima out to the training fields for the afternoon; Hikaku will stay as nominal guard and Yōko is off spending time with Yamanaka Inoshi's twin daughters, Inoko and Inoka, who are her age. Kita's glad for the friendship; peace will hopefully mean more bonds with other clans and relationships which are gradually less transactional.

Kita waves off her husband and his subordinates, fetches a spare kettle for Hikaku as he sets up a brazier for her and another for himself on the engawa around the other side of the guesthouse, then sends a runner to the Akimichi kitchens for some light refreshment to serve to her imminent guest. The kitchens send a dish of agemochi seasoned with shichimi and a bamboo bentwood box containing pork buns set over a hot box to keep them warm, which is a good variety of lightweight nibbles and actual food. They also promise wagashi, but they have to make them first so those will not be arriving for half an hour at best.

The Akimichi seem to be convinced that she is far too thin, always sending rather more food than she expects when she asks for snacks to serve with tea. Those dumplings, for instance: they're a meal in themselves! Well, Hikaku will appreciate one and Madara and the others will happily polish off any leftovers when they return from training.

Kita sets the water to heat and lays out the caddy of sencha, picks a suitably soothing pair of informal cups from the selection offered and settles in to wait; Tobirama is very punctual, so he should be here soon.

He is. However his chakra is faintly unsettled and there's something about his movements that rings a warning chime in her mind. She's seen this before in warriors experiencing waking dreams of the battlefield, what she remembers as PTSD; Uchiha lore holds that such things develop when a warrior's squad and family fail to support and ground them as they should, an indication of neglect and therefore to be treated with a redoubling of care and attentive acceptance. The sharingan makes such things a very present problem for the clan, but they have well-established traditions in place to keep everybody as sane and well-supported as possible. Allowing for this is part of why the Outguard is arranged in squads of mixed ages and are encouraged to be tight-knit, so that not even the orphans are isolated.

Does Tobirama have anybody in the Senju clan to support him? Hashirama is his only brother and clearly too inattentive to offer appropriate care, his parents are dead and while he has over the course of the negotiations mentioned several aunts, an uncle and a grandmother, there has been no indication that he is particularly close to _any_ of them.

"Kita-san." Her guest bows to her and she bows in return, appropriate formulae are exchanged and she ushers him in to sit with his back towards the tokonoma and its vase of flowers. Tobirama offers additional rote thanks for being placed in the seat of honour, but she can tell he is distracted. Perhaps not consciously, but still very definitely distracted.

Perhaps tea and food will help?

They do not.

"Tobirama-san, what prompted you to request to call on me?" She asks once the first cups of tea have been drunk and her guest has picked politely but unenthusiastically at the agemochi. He must be _very_ uncomfortable to not be tempted by Akimichi cookery.

Tobirama carefully sets down his chopsticks and lays his hands on his knees, palm-down and fingers splayed in a gesture which among shinobi is a show of trust or surrender; it takes a moment to raise the hands to form handseals when they are laid like that, unlike when the hands are placed together in front of the chest. "Kita-san," he says heavily, making eye-contact, "you have been a most gracious host to me. However a matter lies between us that I do not feel I can in good conscience let lie any longer."

Kita has absolutely no idea what he is referring to. She picks up her tea and sips it to hide her confusion. "What might that be, Tobirama-san?" She inquires politely.

Her guest seems to briefly sink into himself, then stiffens his shoulders. "Kita-san, I regret to admit I was personally responsible for the death of your father."

Kita feels her fingers tighten reflexively on her teacup, letting the ache that always arises when her father's death is mentioned flow through her and fade away. Yes, her father is dead; no, lingering on the pain will not help.

"You were _personally_ responsible?" She asks quietly, something sore and irritated simmering under her skin. "Did you murder him in a back alley, Tobirama-san? Was it not a battlefield? Had he not maimed and murdered over half your men? Did he not _choose_ to do so? Were you not at that point _duty bound_ to protect those of your clansmen still living, just as he was bound to do likewise?"

Tobirama looks distinctly shocked by her verbal attack. "I, Kita-san, it was my strategy choices and my sensing skills that led the Senju clan to target Uchiha trade missions–"

"Yes," Kita interrupts deliberately, uncaring of the rudeness of doing so, "it _was._ And Chichi was _well aware_ of the risks he was taking by volunteering for such missions. But that was his _choice,_ Tobirama- _san_. He _knew_ what he was risking, as did I and all my siblings old enough to understand such things. He had seen _all_ his brothers make the same choice before him, had seen his sisters mourn their husbands and sons and counted himself blessed for _never_ having buried a child." She takes a quick, sharp breath. "So when he saw that there were not _enough_ warriors to both hold the line against the Senju on the battlefield and fill out a squad for necessary trade missions, of _course_ he volunteered. That was the kind of man he _was_ , to step up when he saw that not doing so could easily cost the clan dearer than it could afford to pay."

Tobirama is so still and so pale and his chakra so tightly suppressed that he could be a painted doll.

"So my father _chose_ to risk his life, because the whole clan was at stake," Kita continues more steadily, firmly reigning in both her chakra and intent. "He chose and in choosing he fed the clan, equipped the clan and enriched the clan. He chose again when you led your clansmen against him and no young Uchiha warriors died that day, cut off before they could bloom into their full strength. There was only one death, none of our clan's hard-won necessities were lost and I have no doubt my father relished his triumph even as he faded from this world. Our clans were at _war_ , Tobirama-san, and my father made a choice. Do not presume to take it from him."

Her guest recovers a little of his poise and bows low. "My sincerest apologies for my presumption, Kita-san. I would not dream of detracting from your father's achievements," he murmurs.

Good. "I accept your retraction, Tobirama-san, but would prefer not to speak of the matter further."

"Of course, Kita-san." His chakra finally surfaces again, slow and cautious like a cat peeking out from under a table.

"Might I know why you picked such a personal topic for discussion?" Kita asks, taking a mechanical sip of her tea.

Tobirama's eyes drop to his hands, still laid flat on his thighs. "My brother is most insistent on my serving as hostage to the Uchiha clan, Kita-san. I did not wish you to feel pressured to host me, nor for you to feel obliged to suffer my presence should it cause you pain. Anija agreed that, should you object to his choice, he would be willing to have my cousin replace me."

Kita wishes she could shake him by the collar of his kimono until he starts talking sense again. "Tobirama-san, my father is _far_ from the only Uchiha who died at your hands. He is also not the only civilian; those first few groups that were ambushed contained _only_ civilians, and there were children among them. My husband lost most of his mother's extended family over the course of nine months, men, women and children alike, and they were once one of our clan's larger branches."

Her guest is looking pasty again.

"But he will not seek restitution, either from you personally nor the Senju generally," she continues steadily, "because he wants _peace_ between our clans and the _only_ way to achieve peace is to _let go_. Not to forget or bury or deny, but _relinquish_ our pain and fury. To say that yes, we _have_ been wronged, but we have also _done_ wrong. Not one of us is without fault. So we will write off your misdeeds as one writes off a bad debt, Tobirama-san, and those of your clan as well, in the hope that you in turn will write off ours and those of the Uchiha clan, so that we can start afresh."

* * *

Tobirama is nine years old and a hundred miles away, sitting on a tree stump on the edge of the Senju compound after Kawarama's funeral and complaining to his two remaining brothers – _Itama I'm so sorry I_ _ **failed**_ _you_ – about how adults are stupid and they need to make a formal agreement with their enemies, make rules and suppress their own hurt and anger so as to live side by side without fighting one-another.

_Itama I told you that holding grudges for the deaths of kinsman and letting the suffering of our comrades run rampant would be the death of you, I'm_ _**sorry** _ _it wasn't true it wasn't your hurt and empathy that killed you it was our_ _**father** _ _._

Hashirama had wondered aloud whether it would be possible to make real peace, a true alliance. Tobirama honestly hadn't thought it likely; the Hatake had abandoned them after their mother's death – _after our father's_ _ **betrayal**_ – so really, what hope did they have with the clans they actually fought with regularly rather than just politely ignored?

 _Write off your misdeeds as one writes off a bad debt, Tobirama-san_ , _so that we can start afresh_.

Tobirama has no idea what to do with this revolutionary concept. It is _liberating_ – _it is_ _ **terrifying**_ _how do you even_ _ **start**_ – and although Hashirama has never articulated it thus, in retrospect it is blatantly obvious that this sentiment is what underpins his brother's entire dream for the future.

The idea of his crimes against the Uchiha as a debt he owes them makes sense, but the idea of them just _writing it off_ as though they do not _need_ the closure that pursuing it would provide, as though they can _afford_ to just shrug it off as _an acceptable loss_ …

It is moderately frightening. How do you even _begin_ to do that? Just… letting _go_. Not burying the pain under paperwork or logic or creating new jutsu, but releasing it. Relinquishing it.

"Tobirama-san?" Kita is radiating genuine concern; Tobirama remembers where he is, realises he is crying and fumbles for a handkerchief.

"I do apologise–"

"You have nothing to apologise for," his host says, tone soft yet firm. "Tears are a fact of life, Tobirama-san; let them fall. They exist to release us from our pain."

Tobirama blinks repeatedly. "Pardon, Kita-san?"

She smiles wryly. "Tobirama-san, tears perform a _bodily function_ , which is to express and exorcise strong emotions. That is why _after_ crying one feels empty, yet often somehow better than before."

Tears are not a weakness then; they are a strength. They grant closure and release. Something else his father was wrong about.

"Would you prefer me to excuse myself, Tobirama-san?"

How long has it been since he last cried?

* * *

Kita does not leave when the silent tears are joined by less-than-silent sobs; instead she moves around the table and hugs her guest tightly. The way he sags into her grasp suggests that he is _not_ getting enough physical comfort from his brother; she is barely more than an acquaintance and yet being hugged releases the floodgates and he all but _collapses_ into her arms.

Hikaku peeks around the shōji, then at her glare takes himself off well out of earshot down the far end of the garden. Kita does not let go of the Senju warrior falling to pieces over her, wrapping one arm firmly around his waist and rubbing his back with her other hand.

He cries for a very long time; the shoulder of her kimono is going to need careful cleaning to get the snot and salt stains out. The Akimichi bringing wagashi is intercepted at the gate and Hikaku leaves the plate on the engawa, just visible through the open shōji. Kita rests her chin against the back of Tobirama's head and does not stop running her hand up and down his back.

As his sobs finally begin to subside, she sings the song that she and every other Uchiha child learns to do their stretching exercises to:

_Smoke flows up, up, up;  
Rain falls down, down, down;  
Sky is wide, wide, wide;  
Wind blows round, round, round;_

_Bird flies high, high, high;  
Worm crawls low, low, low;  
Hare is fast, fast, fast;  
Tortoise slow, slow, slow;_

_River runs, runs, runs;  
Mountain stands, stands, stands;  
They have heads, heads, heads,  
But no hands, hands, hands;_

_Spider spins, spins, spins;  
Spider weaves, weaves, weaves;  
Wears a coat, coat, coat;  
Without sleeves, sleeves, sleeves;_

_Trees are tall, tall, tall;  
Leaves are green, green, green;  
Yet their feet, feet; feet;  
Are not seen, seen, seen;_

_Fire is hot, hot, hot;  
Snow is cold, cold, cold;  
Dew is young, young, young;  
Stone is old, old, old._

The next verses are probably not ones Tobirama has heard yet. They get taught only when children are old enough to start chakra training, to go along with the various exercises for learning to wield fire:

_Chakra flows, flows, flows;  
Fire burns, burns, burns;  
Make it twist, twist, twist;  
How it turns, turns, turns;_

_From your will, will, will;  
Call a spark, spark, spark;  
Let it shine, shine, shine;  
In the dark, dark, dark;_

_One is weak, weak, weak;  
All are strong, strong, strong;  
One will die, die, die;  
All live long, long, long;_

_Hold the fire, fire, fire;  
In your heart, heart, heart;  
Clan is here, here, here;  
Never apart, part, part;_

_One will break, break, break;  
One will fall, fall, fall;  
Clan will live, live, live;  
Clan is all, all, all._

"I hadn't realised there was more," Tobirama mutters thickly into her shoulder. He's slumped almost bonelessly over her lap like the cat he so frequently reminds her of, somehow comfortable despite the odd angle.

"There are chakra exercises to go with each verse," she tells him, keeping her tone gentle but matter-of-fact, "to teach elemental manipulation and a range of strengthening exercises. Those exercises are however taught privately by parents or guardians when they feel a specific child is ready, so you never saw them."

"Sensible," Tobirama agrees, not moving. Kita's not entirely sure where their relationship has shifted _to_ , but it's definitely changed. Letting somebody cry themselves hoarse on you is not something you generally do for a mere acquaintance, and that Tobirama has not yet retreated implies he is comfortable with the change as well.

"So I am going to be hosting you for a further six months or so?" She asks idly.

Tobirama makes a vague sound of agreement into her shoulder. "Unless your husband demands that anija not inflict me on Izuna so soon after his near-death experience," he adds sourly.

"Unlikely," Kita sighs. "Arguing for a lower-ranking hostage has unsavoury implications, no matter the reasoning." Izuna is going to hit the roof.

Tobirama makes a grumpy noise; he is behaving _very_ cat-like right now, which is honestly a little suspect. Does he have a feline summons contract? She knows being contracted can inflict rather profound changes on a summoner. Unless this is a Hatake thing; the Hatake are quite markedly animalistic in certain ways, or at least so her reading on that clan has indicated.

"Are you hungry, Tobirama-san? The Akimichi gave me dumplings and I believe there are fresh wagashi as well."

He finally slides off her, red-rimmed eyes blinking stickily. "Warm dumplings?"

Kita firmly suppresses a smile. "Yes; they're on the hot-box on my side of the table."

Tobirama leans over and retrieves the box of dumplings, dropping two on his plate with the thick ends of his chopsticks then pausing to set another two onto her plate and pass it to her before taking his first bite.

"Thank you, Tobirama-san." He's still well out of it. Kita wonders whether he's going to be able to look her in the eye come tomorrow morning; he's always been exquisitely proper and this isn't in the slightest. Unless the manners are a defence mechanism to distance people with and he's naturally rather more familiar when comfortable.

By the time she's eaten both her dumplings Tobirama has consumed five, fetched the wagashi –a plate of flower-shaped monaka– from the engawa and conscientiously slid two onto her plate before helping himself to the rest; he also pours more tea, which is very generous and also completely backwards because _she_ is supposedly hosting, even if this _is_ informal.

It's like all his higher brain functions have cut out and he's running on some bizarre amalgamation of instinct and child-manners. Not that she minds –however much she appreciates the rigid cultural structure for the guidance it provides, it is also terribly constricting– so she doesn't comment on it. Or indeed do or say anything other than quietly thank Tobirama for pouring her more tea and serving herself another two monaka before nudging the plate his way again.

He finishes them, polishes off the agemochi as well, flops over sideways –head on her lap, body sprawling across the tatami– and goes to sleep.

Just like that.

Kita _desperately_ wishes cameras existed. She makes do with activating her sharingan.


	4. Chapter 4

Madara is not expecting to find Hashirama pacing nervously just beyond the garden gate of the Uchiha-occupied guesthouse when he returns from the training fields, Hikaku watching the Senju Head warily from well out of reach, sharingan active and spinning slowly.

"What's going on?" He demands; he can't think of _anything_ that would prompt this kind of behaviour from his friend. Hashirama lurking like this is also incredibly rude, but honestly he's rather desensitised to the rudeness after three weeks of negotiations. Most of it stems from thoughtlessness, his friend being far more concerned with the big picture than the fine details. Such as being polite. Hashirama _does_ know the forms; he just doesn't consider using them unless he's decided beforehand that this is a good time to do so, is nervous or is concerned about making a good impression on a stranger.

His friend rocks back and turns to face him. "It's Tobirama," he confesses; "He went to tea with Kita _hours_ ago but he never came back and I'm _worried_."

"Why?" Madara can't imagine his wife harming Tobirama; she gets along far too well with the man.

Hashirama shuffles his feet. "Tobi was worried when he left," he frets; "he seemed to think Kita-chan was going to maim him. Which of course I didn't believe in the slightest," he hurriedly adds, hands waving, "But visiting somebody for tea doesn't usually take _four hours!_ "

His friend is right; that is possibly a little excessive. Madara turns to Hikaku. "Well?"

"Tobirama-san _is_ still here, and in perfectly good health," Hikaku admits, making eye contact; Madara lets the flash of genjutsu sink into his mind and can't quite stop his twitch at the image of the cold, controlled younger Senju clinging to Kita and bawling his eyes out. Just, what? Seriously, _what_?!

"So why can't I come _in_?" Hashirama whines, the distinct edge in his tone adding an unpleasant flavour to the childishness. It is in fact shading towards being a threat.

"You are not expected and were not invited, Hashirama-san," Hikaku replies, utterly polite and completely unyielding. "Kita-sama's privacy must be respected." Madara is so proud of his cousin.

"I will go in and see how things are going," he offers. "They've probably lost track of time talking fūinjutsu or something." It is not an impossible scenario, even given Hikaku's contribution.

The tension drains out of Hashirama's shoulders. "That does seem _far_ more likely," he admits, "and it's just like Tobi to ignore me after I upset him earlier, especially since clearly I _was_ right and Kita-chan _didn't_ maim him!" He grins. "Thanks Madara; if they _are_ still talking, would you let him stay for dinner? Otherwise he'll stop by the kitchens and not come back to our guesthouse until late."

"I will offer him the opportunity," Madara concedes before stepping through the gate, Sakurajima and Sahoro close at his heels. The two teenagers head around the building towards the bathhouse, so Madara is alone –Hikaku stays behind to watch the gate and Hashirama– when he removes his sandals in the genkan and pads silently around the engawa towards the open shōji of the main room.

His wife glances up at him and raises a finger to her lips, eyes dancing in quiet delight. Madara takes in the scene –table crooked, tatami crumpled, a scattering of discarded plates but not a single speck of food left anywhere– and the players –Kita sat comfortably within arm's reach of the brazier and teapot, Tobirama sprawled sloppily across the bunched tatami with his kimono creased, face tear-streaked and snoring ever so slightly with his _head_ in Kita's _lap_ – and decides that actually? Between this and what Hikaku saw earlier, he probably doesn't want to know.

So he nods, turns and walks back to the genkan, puts his sandals back on and heads back to the garden gate to assure Hashirama that his brother is indeed completely fine and entirely un-maimed, and that Tobirama will return to the Senju guesthouse later in the evening.

Then he too heads for the bathhouse. Whatever _is_ going on with Tobirama, his wife evidently has matters well in hand.

* * *

After Haha died, his father took him and his brothers, one older and two younger, out of her house and into the Senju clan hall. He also started them on a much harsher training regime, focusing on what _he_ wanted them to learn rather than building on what Haha had already taught them.

Father had always been more taskmaster than parent; after Haha's death, all the softness and support in Tobirama's life had come from Haha's snow leopards. He'd never questioned why they only came to him when he was alone; he assumed they also went to his brothers when they were alone, but Hashirama had been so surprised and delighted to see them after Tobirama signed the summoning contract at fourteen and started practicing…

They are _his_ snow leopards now; Kyōnari and Tōnari who were Haha's first, and Chikaki, Shizuki and Otoki who have chosen to answer him. Not for battle –it is not that kind of contract– but to track, hunt food, pass messages and spy. He rarely calls on them in the summer months though; the hot, wet climate of western Fire Country makes them complain constantly and they cannot move with any speed without the risk of overheating.

Tobirama mostly calls on them for conversation on solo missions or in private; they are interesting conversationalists, if acutely subversive. Every single time he summons Tōnari she greets him with the inquiry as to whether he's overthrown his brother yet and while Hashirama laughed it off that one time he was present to hear the question, Tobirama prefers _not_ to foster the impression that he is fomenting dissent within the clan.

Right now he feels vaguely tired like an ache in his bones, but mainly he feels warm and safe. Like the scent-memories of falling asleep after training and Haha carrying him back into the house and curling up around him in bed with Tama and Kawa while Hashi was learning to grow trees. But different, because Haha smelled like leopards, lightning strikes and green growing things where this scent is hearth-fire, agarwood and scales over the underlying womanly scent.

… scales?

Tobirama cracks open his eyes, peering at the silk draped over the lap his head is resting on and the low table just beyond it with its haphazard stack of plates and a perched tea kettle. The kimono is a very pale green with regular vertical white lines, occasional grey horizontal lines and embroidered with a scattering of pale yellow circles outlined in black; it is as though a kimono had been made out of moon moths.

It's really soft against his face.

Hashirama is… _there_ , with Yagura and Ryūsha and Chigi… are they eating dinner? Without him? That's not very nice. Tobirama pulls himself out from under the hand on his shoulder-blade, sits upright and _stretches_ , back arching and yawning toothily. Then he opens his eyes again and finds himself face to face with Kita.

Kita, who is smiling as fondly as Haha ever did and whose kimono is moon-moth green with a very visible watery stain on one shoulder.

Tobirama finally remembers what led to him falling asleep in this woman's lap and instinctively emulates his leopards in what to do when caught at something profoundly undignified: act as though nothing worth commenting on has happened at all. He has nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing happened. "Is there any tea left?"

"Madara refilled the kettle for me after returning from training," Kita replies easily, warmth and fondness sparkling in her eyes as she allows him to move the conversation on. "Please help yourself; you are invited to dinner and the food will arrive presently." She gets to her feet, rising briefly onto her toes in a discreet stretch. "Excuse me while I change."

Tobirama looks down at his –extremely crumpled– kimono and raises a hand to his jaw. "Might I make use of your bathhouse, Kita-san?" This kimono is probably a lost cause but he can at least wash his face; it feels very sticky.

One of the fusuma across the room opens and Madara leans into view. "Let me lend you a yukata," the man says firmly, making eye-contact with Tobirama, "and my wife will work her magic on those creases for you." He smiles ever so slightly. "Fūinjutsu really can be used for anything."

A seal for smoothing creases from clothing? Then again, he _is_ currently trying to create a laundry jutsu, so it's certainly practical. Tobirama sketches a suitable seated bow. "Thank you for your kindness." He then pours himself tea; he is feeling a little dry.

Kita just smiles as she leaves the room, but her departure prompts a flurry of activity: Uchiha Yōko slips in to carry off all the plates and the bamboo dumpling warmer, neatly sweeping loose crumbs off the tabletop onto the stack and then heading off towards the genkan, Sahoro places the tea kettle on a steel trivet and carries the brazier out of the room –intending to sweep out some of the ashes perhaps– and Sakurajima shuffles around straightening the tatami.

Tobirama ignores them as the evidence of his outburst and long-overstayed welcome is neatly erased, drinking his tea. He then pours another cup; it's nice tea and he's thirsty. Increasingly hungry too, despite having gorged himself on dumplings and sweets a few hours ago.

Haha used to make dumplings. He'd forgotten that.

Madara emerges from the room he'd vanished back into and drops a loosely folded yukata and clean towel on the tatami by Tobirama's knee. "Hikaku and Sahoro won't mind you changing in their room," he says, nodding at the fusuma closest to the genkan then joining Sakurajima in moving a larger low table into the main room and setting it out fairly centrally.

Which oh-so-coincidentally means Tobirama doesn't have to move at all. He watches as all the Uchiha except Kita –who has yet to reappear– join in fetching trays, cups and cushions from an adjacent room and set them out around the table, Sahoro carrying the brazier back inside and a returning Yōko shooing the warrior off so she can relight the fire with fresh charcoal.

He drinks another cup of tea and then the kettle is empty. Since the food is clearly imminent and he _does_ want to wash, Tobirama rises to his feet and retreats to the room indicated for him to change in. It is exactly like his own room in the guesthouse the Senju are occupying, except that there are two rolled-up futons, two clothes' racks, two armour stands –that enamelled armour really is _exquisite_ – two washstands and two low tables, each piled somewhat haphazardly with a range of lacquered boxes and loose scrolls, one stacked visibly higher than the other.

The more precariously loaded table is probably Uchiha Hikaku's.

Tobirama changes quickly, folds his kimono carefully over one arm and leaves the room again. It is a little awkward to entrust his outer clothing to Madara's wife, but the other man _did_ offer and it has quite honestly _always_ been other people's wives caring for his clothing; he was simply oblivious to it until recently. Even here and now, the Akimichi's launderers are cleaning all the Senju's inner clothing layers for them on a half-weekly basis. It is only awkward because he knows Kita personally and she is so much higher-ranking than he is.

When he knocks on the other set of fusuma Kita opens them almost immediately, already dressed in a different kimono: this one is yellow with reddish-brown waving horizontal bands bracketing eye-like circles. It too has a very moth-like flavour, although Tobirama doesn't think he recognises the species this time.

"Ah, excellent," she says, taking his clothing off him. "This will not take many minutes, Tobirama-san; I'll hang it up in Hikaku and Sahoro's room once I've finished."

Tobirama bows briefly and heads out to the bathhouse.

* * *

After dinner is over and Tobirama has gone back to the Senju guesthouse, Madara takes Kita out to the end of the garden. Overhead the sky is increasingly cloudy and a stiff breeze is blowing; rain is evidently on the way.

"Kita, what did you _do_ to Tobirama?" Because his wife clearly _has_ done _something_ : Tobirama's overall attitude is not what it was before. The man is less tightly contained, less meticulously mannerly and the cat-like twitchiness of before has been replaced by shameless feline indolence. Rather than occupying as little space as possible Tobirama now seems to sprawl, his chakra taking up space around him rather than being tightly bound under his skin. Not much space, admittedly, but it is still a very dramatic difference. The more comfortable posture is also telling.

His wife sighs. "He arrived looking like he could barely tell reality from battle-dreams," she says quietly, "and then upset me. So I lectured him, which may very possibly have triggered _another_ battle-vision, and then I explained the necessity of writing off an enemy's wrongdoings when making peace with them. At which point he had a far more visible absence and then, well…"

"Burst into tears?" Madara guesses. That was what Hikaku had seen after all.

"Ah, so Hikaku _did_ tell you. Yes, he did, and he let me hug him so I wasn't about to let go, not when that could easily have made everything so much worse. He eventually regained his equilibrium, gorged himself on Akimichi dumplings and sweets and fell asleep on me." She giggles. "I have memorised that moment forever. I may paint it for Hashirama-san."

Madara chuckles; his friend would certainly appreciate such a painting.

"Then when he finally woke up he did that impossible feline backbend and showed off a mouthful of suspiciously sharp teeth when he yawned; I know his mother was a Hatake but seriously husband, _fangs_. His molars have slightly longer spikes up the outside but his canines are frankly ridiculous, especially the upper ones."

"He certainly did the cat thing of 'of course I would _never_ do anything undignified, you saw nothing' after you left to stretch your legs properly and change for dinner," Madara agrees, smiling at the memory. "I wonder if this is all the Hatake genes or if he has a summons contract of his own." The Uchiha only have the two contracts, neither of which are in the Amaterasu lineage so Madara's never signed one. He knows how they work though; he's seen both contract scrolls and comparing the fūinjutsu made it clear how the process is defined and how it can affect the summoner.

"Well he's the only living child of Butsuma's second wife, so it's not like there's any basis for comparison there." Kita visibly shrugs off the mystery; Madara agrees that Tobirama may well reveal the specifics himself during his upcoming stay. He will be with them for over half a year after all. "And, while we have privacy…" she glances around them carefully, as though checking for anybody hiding up a tree.

"What is it, Kita-koi?" He asks quietly, taking her hands in his.

His wife smiles shyly at him. "I'm pregnant, husband."

Madara feels himself go weak at the knees and has to fortify himself with a quick burst of chakra. "Already?" He manages.

Kita shuffles her feet, eyes dropping. "I'm two months' pregnant, dearest; I didn't want to say anything sooner, in case I was wrong, but now I'm very _definitely_ pregnant. I've been nauseous every morning this past week."

Madara vaguely remembers his mother talking about early morning nausea when she was pregnant with Saburō; she'd thrown up once or twice and he'd been worried she was sick until she patiently explained to him that it was normal to be like this when expecting a baby.

"You are wonderful," he tells her earnestly, hugging her tightly. "You're going to be a wonderful mother; you are already with the girls."

"Thank you, husband," she murmurs, her voice catching from the strength of her emotions. _"You_ are going to be a wonderful father. I hope the baby has your face."

"You wouldn't wish my grumpy face on a daughter, would you?" Madara teases her, giddy with glee.

"It's a very loveable face; why wouldn't I want to see it more?" She retorts, poking him in the ribs. "And Madara?"

"Yes, mother of all my future children?"

Kita goes a little pink but her eyes darken temptingly. "Being pregnant makes me want you more."

Well in _that_ case… "I'm all yours," he promises huskily, lifting her into his arms and running back to the front door of the guesthouse in a split-second blur of speed. "Let me indulge you."

Kita leans forwards in his arms and presses a kiss just under the curve of his jaw, sucking lightly on the sensitive skin there. "I am my beloved's and he belongs to me," she croons, the rhythm to her words implying it's a line from a song or a poem. "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for his love is more delightful than wine. Your name is like perfume poured out. Take me away with you; let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers."

Poetry; epic love poetry by the metre and Madara almost trips over his sandals kicking them off so he can hurry inside barefoot and get her into the bedroom so nobody else can hear the words being spoken with such naked longing.

"Place me like a seal over your heart," his lovely, maddening wife continues, tone soft and yearning, "like a crest on your arm, for love is as strong as death, its ardour as unyielding as the grave. It burns like a mighty fire, like an everlasting flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one's clan for love, it would be utterly scorned–"

Madara silences her with a kiss, shoulders the fusuma closed behind them and sets about stripping her of her kimono. Her hands are on his sash, pulling the knot loose and pushing his own kimono off his shoulders.

"My own garden is mine to give," she whispers against his lips as they both gasp for breath and the allusion makes him shudder. Oh, his wife will _most certainly_ be the death of him.

* * *

"Tobi, wake up."

Tobirama rolls over so his back is to his brother's disgustingly alert chakra signature, burying his face in his pillow.

"Tobi, it's _morning_!"

Fingers poke him between the ribs; he slaps his brother's hand away. "Knock't _off_ , Hashi."

There is a pause –blessed silence thank you– and then his brother squeals loudly. "Tobi! You've not called me that in _years_!" Tobirama is then dragged out of bed into a tight hug, which he _strenuously objects to_.

"Get _off_ me! Anija I'm warning you–!"

Two minutes later Tobirama is huffily straightening his nightwear and Hashirama is trying to pretend he's sulking as he heals his bitten arm, but the happy bubbles in his brother's chakra are impossible to miss.

"What _is_ it, anija?" Tobirama demands irritably, folding his arms. He'd been _sleeping_.

His brother pouts plaintively. "Tobi! I just wanted to know how your visit yesterday went! I tried to wait up for you, but you didn't come back for _ages_ and I didn't want to wake up late so I had to go to bed."

That was entirely the _point_ of Tobirama delaying his return in the first place; he'd left the Uchiha guesthouse in good time, then gone for a short walk around the gardens and snuck into his bedroom in the Senju guesthouse over the engawa rather than coming in through the genkan. Hashirama had still been sitting up in the main room when he went to sleep; his brother was terrible at sensing unless whatever he was looking for was up a tree or adjacent to some wood he'd grown himself.

"I didn't come back late at all, you just didn't notice," he says blandly, finger-combing his hair into some semblance of order. The silencing seals on the fusuma had helped there, admittedly.

His brother just bounces impatiently. "So how did your talk go, Tobi? And why did you stay so long?"

Tobirama tries to find something he can say that won't either be a lie or far too personal. "Kita-san explained her perspective on her father's death," he says carefully, "and then clarified her stance on why she believes peace will work and how to make it work. It was…" Terrifying. Liberating. Painful. "… enlightening."

"Tobi! You can't _say_ that and not tell me!" His idiotic and far too chirpy sibling pouts pleadingly at him. "What _are_ Kita-chan's beliefs on peace? How is she planning on making it work? I know that if the Senju and the Uchiha make peace we'll be too strong for anybody else to oppose and they'll all stop fighting too; does she see that as well?"

Kita's perspective of peace is fundamentally incompatible with his brother's. Hashirama wants to strong-arm everyone into peace by presenting a threat greater than they can oppose, while Kita chooses to step back from war and then welcome anybody else who wants to do likewise. "Her ideas make far more sense than yours do," he says scathingly. "When has an enemy being too strong to fight head-on ever stopped _anybody_ truly determined to get vengeance?"

Hashirama's face falls and gloom swirls above his head as he sags forwards. "Otōto you're so _mean_!"

"Chopstick idiot," Tobirama mutters, grabbing his yukata and towel and stalking out to the bathhouse. It was Tōka who came up with his brother's childhood nickname; she still uses it regularly, although Tobirama hasn't in well over a decade. 'Hashi' are chopsticks and his brother was a stringy child; that his brother has mokuton just makes the nickname all the more hilariously apt.

At least they are probably going to get the treaty finished soon. Three weeks of sitting around in increasingly hot weather is most assuredly not his idea of fun.

Sure enough, with the matter of hostages settled, the finalising of terms and penalties is completed in a little less than a day and a half. Negotiations are then declared to be concluded and dinner that afternoon is a very lavish banquet to celebrate. Mid-morning the following day four completed copies of the treaty are presented to Hashirama and Madara; Tobirama has to help Hashirama with some of the more obscure kanji, but Madara clearly has no such difficulties comparing the documents to ensure they are entirely identical. Even without his sharingan active.

Kita can clearly understand them too; Madara pauses at the end of each section to ensure his wife has also finished reading.

After the copies have been confirmed to be fully identical and exactly as intended by the parties making the treaty, Hashirama and Madara both sign their names at the end of each section on every document, Akimichi-sama adding his own name at the end as witness. Then Madara and Hashirama shake hands, each collect one of the copies and entrust a third copy to Akimichi-sama. The fourth copy is then handed off by all three Clan Heads to a professional messenger waiting outside, who will carry the scroll directly to the capital to be filed in the Daimyo's Archives.

Messengers use chakra, but they are not shinobi; they are sworn to the daimyo and their only skill is running fast over all possible terrains. They are considered the daimyo's hands, so even shinobi clans do their best to avoid interfering with them.

"It's finally happening!" Hashirama says softly and fervently as the messenger dashes away, vanishing down the road to no doubt gossip with everybody he meets on his way to the capital. "We've finally made peace!"

Madara snorts quietly, but there's a hint of fond smile on his face. "Now all we have to do is not break it," he comments.

Hashirama turns and hugs Madara, who sighs but pats Tobirama's utterly impossible older brother on the back until he lets go again. "I request that my general Hikaku-san have until tomorrow mid-morning to pack and finish writing letters to family members," the Uchiha Head adds, taking a neat step back out of arm's reach.

"That's a good idea; Tobirama will want to write letters as well," Hashirama agrees. Tobirama has in fact _already_ started writing letters –and quietly despairing of the mess his brother will make of the clan's cash flow over the seven months until the New Year when the exchange ends– but yes, an additional half-day would be most welcome.

"So hostages will be exchanged at ten o'clock tomorrow morning," Akimichi-sama concludes. "But first: lunch!" He beams. "The kitchens have prepared another celebratory meal."

Tobirama has no doubt that there will be a celebratory dinner in the evening and a celebratory breakfast tomorrow morning too; the Akimichi like their food and peace between the Senju and Uchiha clans is sufficiently unprecedented to be an excellent excuse for entire _weeks_ of celebrations.

* * *

"Tobirama-san, you seem not to be enjoying yourself."

Tobirama side-eyes Kita, who has drifted up beside him; through the open shōji and across the room, Hashirama and Madara are drinking sake with Akimichi-sama and falling around laughing. It is late evening and the festivities have not stopped since noon; so much for letter-writing or even packing. Everybody else in the festival hall is also in varying degrees of inebriated, but the three Clan Heads have most visibly over-indulged.

"Not having been aware of my brother's intentions, I was unable to take appropriate steps to delegate my responsibilities before negotiations began," he says shortly.

Kita's eyes gleam over her fan. "What I believe you _mean_ , Tobirama-san," she says lightly, "is that you believe your brother will utterly destroy your filing system in your absence."

Tobirama drops his eyes to his sake cup, willing himself _not_ to break out in sarcastic laughter. Oh, his filing system is the _least_ of his worries right now… wait a moment. Looking up, he narrows his eyes at Kita; she knows _exactly_ what he's stressing about. He can _tell_.

"Is this your evil plan then?" He asks dryly. "Destroy the Senju by putting its governance and finances entirely in my brother's hands, then standing back and shaking your head as my clan collapses before picking up the pieces?" It's exactly the kind of thing she _would_ do, too. No part of it can be laid at her feet, and yet with a little distance the strings pulled are clearly visible. She and her husband have played Hashirama masterfully, setting up a situation in which he would of _course_ nominate Tobirama as hostage.

"It _is_ why we insisted on exchanging you for Izuna the first time," Kita admits candidly. "I did realise this was a likely outcome of the negotiation proceedings as soon as I saw who your brother had brought with him, but my husband was more optimistic." She does not admit to anything else.

Tobirama glares back down at his sake cup; he's barely drunk more than a mouthful so far this evening, not really being in the mood. "More fool him." He rather has to admire Kita's ruthless practicality though; whether or not peace lasts, this may well cripple the Senju. And they can't back out now without suffering the even more crippling consequences outlined in the treaty. They all walked right into it and there is no escape; defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, all in less than a season since Izuna's injury.

Kita chuckles behind her fan. "Hope springs eternal," she agrees vaguely, eyeing him from under her lashes.

"Just tell me." Whatever it is she's sitting on, she can spit it out without fretting over proprieties. Tobirama doesn't have the patience for them right now, not now he's seen what has been lying in wait under all the pleasantries and generosity.

Kita moves to stand beside him on the engawa, her eyes drifting over to where her husband is now singing a _very_ bawdy song with his fellow drunkards. "Hypothetically, would Hashirama see it as good for peace for his children to be as close in age as possible to Madara's and mine?" she asks lightly. The surprisingly tuneful lewdness doesn't seem to bother her in the least; clearly this is a side of Madara she's already familiar with.

"Yes." That much is blatantly obvious. Hashirama is ridiculously sentimental where Madara is concerned.

"Hypothetically, would Mito-san be willing to assist in such a scheme?"

Tobirama turns to eye the demure, innocent-looking Uchiha lady standing next to him with profound wariness. Again, something is most _definitely_ afoot. However it seems possible that he and the Senju may actually benefit this time, which would be a nice change. "My nephew is three years old and my sister would welcome another child," he admits cautiously. Mito has said as much on several occasions; it's just that Hashirama has always been rather more interested in making peace with Madara than in contributing to the next generation.

"Perhaps you could write to her, suggesting it," Kita murmurs idly, waving her fan. "I am currently pregnant, after all, and a few months between birthdates is not so great a difference."

All is revealed; the annoying part is that it _would_ work, to the clan's benefit even. The news that Madara is expecting another child would absolutely _delight_ Hashirama, and it would take no effort at all to plant into his brother's mind the idea that it would be wonderful if the Uchiha child had a similarly-aged Senju to befriend. Mito would also welcome the opportunity –all the more so if Tobirama warned her in advance and explained his concerns about keeping Hashirama out of the clan's financial policies– and Tōka and Yagura could then quietly get on with mission vetting and bookkeeping without their bleeding-heart Clan Head poking his nose in and making inadvisable decisions that everybody then has to abide by. It's bad enough that he sets the budget.

"I will take your suggestion under advisement." Tobirama pauses. "And congratulations."

"Thank you, Tobirama-san." She lowers her fan just far enough that he can see her smile. "Excuse me, I am feeling a little tired; I will have my husband escort me back to our quarters."

Tobirama watches as she walks over to where Hashirama is now laid out on his back from laughing so hard and Madara is pouring himself a fresh cup of sake, face a picture of comically exaggerated concentration. As Kita gets within two metres of her husband he turns towards her like a flower towards the sun, face lighting up in delight.

"Kita-koi!" The sake is abandoned as Madara flows to his feet with surprising grace, taking a few steps and wrapping his arms around his wife, pressing his forehead against hers. "You're amazing," he slurs cheerfully, straightening up and swaying ever so slightly before continuing: "I have the most beautiful and brilliant wife in the whole world. Engaging me to you was the only good idea my father ever had. Want to fuck?"

Tobirama, who had been taking a mouthful of sake, spits it out again. _What._

"Not here, husband," Kita says clearly; behind Madara, Akimichi-sama overbalances backwards with a crash, absolutely _roaring_ with laughter. "Take me back to our room first."

Madara beams; Tobirama has not seen such an unguardedly lustful expression on the man's face before and _never_ wants to _ever_ again. "As you say," the Uchiha Head rumbles, easily lifting his wife off her feet and vanishing with her in a brief swirl of flames.

Hashirama sits up. "Where'd Madara go?" He asks plaintively, looking around. Tobirama abandons his now unfortunately empty sake cup on the convenient railing he had been leaning against and heads over to drag his brother back to their guesthouse. The drunkenness won't last much longer –his brother's chakra is frankly ridiculous in how it burns through intoxicants– and if he doesn't remove Hashirama then the man will go on drinking all night while complaining like a jilted lover about Madara having abandoned him.

The Akimichi don't deserve to waste a dozen or more bottles of their best sake trying to keep Hashirama tipsy and distracted so he doesn't mope about Madara being more interested in bedding his wife than in getting drunk. Tobirama would very much _prefer_ to be drunk –he doesn't want to remember that look on Madara's face– but dragging his brother away requires both hands, so he can't even grab a bottle of sake on his way out to dull the memory with later.

* * *

Kita wrote to Izuna the moment Hashirama's hostage plans became clear; her brother deserves better than to be ambushed with this development. On the morning of the Senju's departure with Hikaku she gets a letter back, the kanji choppy but politely thanking her for the warning and informing her that he will be moving out of the clan hall into the other Amaterasu residence. Considering that Yori is currently living in 'the other Amaterasu residence,' Kita suspects that the medic is finally moving out of her husband's childhood home and into the Yatagarasu lineage's main house. Since Tsunimi-san died three years ago the building has been empty save for Sato-chan, his youngest daughter, who keeps the house clean, tends the garden and cares for the koi in the pond.

Hikaku and Yori have been planning to move for over a year now; they just haven't ever had the time. Now clearly Yori has decided that she _does_ have time and wants it over and done with before she has a baby to care for; Izuna moving _into_ her current home was no doubt an unwelcome reminder that the building she has spent her entire married life so far in is not actually _her_ house.

There's not much left of the formerly large and sprawling Yatagarasu main lineage; Tsunimi's four grandchildren by his firstborn Bandai are in the care of their aunt Chidori due to both their parents having died. Eboshi and Misao-chan are also dead; Kita really misses Misao-chan. She was a good friend. Of Tsunimi's six children, Chidori is the eldest of the three still living and Enichi, who is Hijiri's age, is in the Outguard so as to help provide for his nephews and niece. Sato-chan keeps the Yatagarasu properties in good order and is part of the widows and orphans' cooperative, not being of age yet.

Until Hikaku has children –children who are born healthy and live to be named– his youngest brother Hidaka, who is newly-thirteen now, is the nominal Yatagasrasu heir and the only living member of the lineage to have had the full training for that role. Hikaku and Hijiri are as much Amaterasu as Yatagarasu by training, which Kita knows they both find awkward sometimes, but Hidaka is all Yatagarasu and Benten is an odd but utterly confident mix of Yatagarasu and Toyotama, which is definitely Kita's fault. Then again, Toyotama values seem to mesh better with Yatagarasu ones than the Amaterasu ones do; or else it's just that Tajima-sama's perspective on Amaterasu values meshes badly with Yatagarasu ones. Privately Kita finds the latter explanation more likely.

The Uchiha may look like an implacable homogenous monolith to outsiders, but honestly they're actually an ongoing tangle of longstanding arguments and very different perspectives on centuries of shared history, held together by their bloodline, tightly entwined traditions and the external pressures forcing them to all haul together. Kita suspects the village is either going to bring the clan together more than ever before or else dissolve it into a dozen or so sub-clans, depending on how the next decade or so of peace goes. Provided they do indeed _get_ a decade or so of peace. Tajima-sama had his reasons for breaking up the lineage heads' power blocks into petty bickering, but due to his decades of sabotage clan cohesion is still poor and without the external pressure of the war with the Senju, the various lineages will doubtless act as they see fit as their members age and numbers eventually grow again.

The Uchiha plus Tobirama do not leave when the Senju do; Akimichi Chōtai has additional trade negotiations he wants to formalise with Madara, mainly on the subject of ceramics and kitchen knives, but also regarding silk and the privacy seal Kita has painted on one of their guesthouses. Kita suspects these negations will take only a few days –Madara has bargained with Chōtai-dono before on various occasions– and since it is business rather than diplomacy, it's all far less formal than the pageantry of the previous month.

Interestingly, after that first day when Tobirama stayed in the Senju guesthouse –possibly catching up on sleep or writing those letters he had been unable to pen the night before his clansmen's departure– he takes to showing up at the Uchiha guesthouse after breakfast while Madara is negotiating with Chōtai-dono and vanishing again around dinnertime.

He doesn't exactly _do_ anything in particular. He's just… there. Usually out on the engawa with a writing desk and various scrolls, reading or writing in between trying out little chakra exercises in a bowl of water. Kita takes to leaving cups of tea and plates of nibbles for him by the open shōji when she eats herself and they vanish accordingly; it is somewhat hysterically similar to being adopted by a very aloof cat.

Her husband is bemused, but agrees with her that there's no reason to tell the man to stop. Certain Uchiha act like this too –generally those whose parent or parents have signed the cat contract, as the summons participate in the upbringing of their summoners' children– so it's not like the behaviour is unnerving; it's just not what they were expecting from the chilly, logical and formal younger Senju brother.

Clearly quite a lot of that chilly formality is a façade.

The summer rains also start while Madara is arranging this new trade contract with the Akimichi clan, which means a welcome reduction in daytime temperatures if not in humidity. It makes training rather more of a challenge –not that Sahoro or Sakurajima stop sparring just because fifteen minutes under the open sky leaves them soaked through and muddy to the knees– and makes it rather harder to get anything to dry at all. Well it would if Kita had not long since turned to sealing for such things; really, why has nobody else tried this before? Domestic sealing applications are endless and they significantly reduce the effort involved in repetitive chores, leaving more time for other things to be done in.

The drying seals however attract Tobirama's interest.

"How do they work?" He asks one afternoon, having come up behind them as Yōko hangs up the warriors' wet shirts and trousers and Kita chases the water out of their coats. Yōko jumps, not having noticed the intrusion; Tobirama conspicuously fails to apologise.

"How does what work, Tobirama-san?" Kita asks, driving more water out of the coat in her hands to fall into the trough it is hanging over to catch the drips.

He huffs at her. "How are you driving the water out of the fabric like that, Kita-san?"

"With a seal, Tobirama-san."

He crosses his arms over his chest. "I would never have guessed," he replies dryly. "And that's not what I asked, as you are well aware."

Not it isn't, but she can tease him a little when he wanders right into the washhouse while they're doing laundry, making Yōko squeak in shock like that.

"I'm just moving the water out," she tells him. The seal is a filtering seal; they're pleasantly multipurpose and let you filter out just about anything. The potters use them for glazes, although not much as it turns out most glazes require a mix of components rather than a single compound. The experimental phase there was surprisingly enlightening.

The trick with this _particular_ seal is that it's calibrated for 'rainwater', not pure water, so it removes dust and other environmental particulates as well. The coat is then left completely clean rather than merely dry.

Tobirama frowns at Sakurajima's coat and the growing puddle of dirty water in the trough beneath it. "That's not all you're doing," he says after a pause.

Kita smiles at him. "Tobirama-san, a lady must be allowed her secrets," she chides gently. "How go your studies?"

"Not particularly productively," he complains, slumping back against the frame of the doorway he is standing in, arms falling to hang at his sides. "I am quantifying much and learning more, but none of it is particularly useful for my intended purpose." He narrows his eyes slightly at the coat she has just finished driving water out of. "While your seal, oddly enough, _is_." His fingers twitch, as though he wishes to reach out and snatch the seal away for closer examination.

Kita moves the dry coat off to the side and sets about repeating the process with Sahoro's. "And what is that purpose, Tobirama-san?"

He glares briefly at her. "I'm trying to make a way to speed up the laundry process with a jutsu. Gently centrifuging soiled fabric with chakra works up to a point, but your seal is considerably more efficient in fully removing residue."

He really is taking the 'finding peaceful chakra applications' issue seriously? That's certainly encouraging. "It is a variation on a filtration seal, Tobirama-san; rainwater is a mix of water and fine particulates, which can be exploited to remove _all_ particulates from a piece of fabric once it is thoroughly wet."

"Do you use it for all your laundry?"

"No: in the longer term it damages fabric, unless the fabric has specifically been reinforced with other seals to enhance its durability. Hence my only using it on the coats." She has already discussed her reinforcement seals with him after all. "Have you tried centrifuging with a detergent, Tobirama-san? That would loosen more stubborn stains and prevent them from reattaching elsewhere."

"I'm trying to create something that makes soap unnecessary, Kita-san," Tobirama says absently, "but maybe a twist in the jutsu to mimic the amphiphilic effect with chakra? That could work. Thanks, Kita-san." He wanders off again, feet completely silent.

"He's as bad as Maru _ever_ was," Yōko mutters less quietly than she might have done, crisply shaking out the damp undershirt in her hands before hanging it up beside the rest of the clothing. They have another seal to speed up the drying there, a subtle heating seal combined with a cross-draught through the room to encourage the moisture to leave.

"He's Suseri-san's youngest, yes?" Kita checks. Suseri-san's been dead a while now, sadly.

"Yes; she died when he was six and the cats did more to raise him than anybody else afterwards –what with the war, him being naturally rather quiet and people being busy– so none of the adults really noticed he was going about life from the cat perspective until he signed up for the Outguard last autumn and was suddenly giving his instructors headaches," Yōko says with a sigh. "Of course all the rest of us _knew_ he was a bit odd, but we were used to it so it didn't really seem significant." She shakes her head, making a face. "He just sits and stares sometimes, or shows up in other people's bedrooms to nap on their futons, or on top of the person _on_ the futon. The rest of us that age are trying to socialise him better now we know _why_ he's like that, but I don't think he's actually going to _change_ much."

"Well hopefully he won't try to fight Tobirama for showing up and being feline in his personal space."

Yōko giggles. "Well so long as Senju-san doesn't try to claim any of Maru's people we should be fine; it's just you he's following around, isn't it Kita-sama?"

"Just me _so far_ ," Kita says warningly, waving the de-raining seal at Yōko. "I am _very_ sure that's going to extend to my girls once we're back in the compound." Tobirama has already shown considerable fondness for Toshi and Azami and a soft spot for Benten, so it's pretty much a sure thing.

"Just so long as Madara-sama doesn't get the wrong idea," Yōko mutters, shuddering.

Kita does not answer that, not really seeing the need to. Madara has observed Tobirama's bizarre personality switch with bemusement but is not remotely threatened by it. Her husband knows her far too well for that. On balance, it's far more likely that Tobirama will get assimilated as an extra family member; Madara's big-brother tendencies are spread across Izuna, Hikaku, Hijiri, Hidaka _and_ Benten, along with Naka and Midori, but there's certainly room in his heart for an unexpectedly feline Senju as well. Kita would add the entire Outguard in there too, but it's more her husband's paternal instincts getting exercised there than the big-brotherly ones.

Her husband is never so satisfied with his work as when he's looking after people.

* * *

Madara's negotiations with Chōtai-dono are over, Kita has applied the seals, the steel-smiths will be delighted by the prospect of a steady market for domestic blades –they supply the clan, but with so few adults there are no new households needing new kitchen knives and well-kept steel does not need replacing often– seeing as peace will significantly reduce the demand for replacement daggers and swords, and with the Akimichi taking a large proportion of their more experimental painted ceramics out of the clan's storehouses, the potters and apprentices will have the opportunity to try new things and take advantage of the lessons learned in previous firings. It's going to be a good year on the financial side, Madara can tell already. The widows will also be pleased by the dyes they will receive in return for the painted and printed silk bolts and Kita is certainly _very_ smug about the many bottles of rosewater and she has been both given and promised for her sealing efforts.

Since business is finally over, the Uchiha delegation –with Hikaku replaced by Tobirama– are heading home, but at a more sedate pace than they'd arrived: in addition to all the other gifts Chōtai-dono has pressed on their delegation in gratitude for 'honouring his house with their august presence,' Madara has been given Tenka and all her accoutrements, which means they can't run as fast as they usually would because the hawk-eagle would very _definitely_ object to the wind resistance of a chakra-enhanced sprint.

They're still running, of course, but it's going to take them rather longer to get home. On the upside, it means everybody has plenty of breath for talking with.

"–was because he named his eight sons after famous swords?"

So of course his clansmen are arguing clan history. In front of Senju Tobirama, who seems fascinated.

"No, he got called Hakken because he broke eight swords fighting battles before becoming clan head!" Yōko says enthusiastically.

"Well the version _I_ heard was that he was a gambler and lost them at dice and cards," Sahoro interjects.

"I would have expected your clan history to be more well-defined," Tobirama mentions to Sakurajima, whom he is running beside.

"Oh it's very well-defined," the nineteen-year-old replies wryly, "so much so that there's at least three versions of every story, all written by contemporaries and equally authentic; different lineages have different histories and there are _seventeen_ known lineages, although seven of them are mythic so their histories are closed to all save the Outguard and Homeguard Heads. Not that Madara-sama exactly has _time_ to go diving into the depths of centuries-old records to find more sides to the old stories than we have already." She turns to glare at Sahoro past the chest on her shoulder. "And he was _called_ Hakken because he _owned_ eight different swords and fought with all of them."

"You're all wrong," Madara intervenes dryly before the argument can escalate, glancing briefly over his shoulder. "He was called Hakken because his father Ōmime, who was Outguard Head at that time, took a sudden fancy to some nobleman's new concubine while he was visiting the other man's home and told the nobleman to name his price, and the man decided he wanted eight Uchiha-made swords. So Ōmime gave the man his own sword and the swords belonging to most of his entourage, and then took the girl home with him. She lived in Ōmime's house for six years before she decided that actually she wanted to marry him rather than just be admired from afar and Hakken was her only son. Ōmime then really pissed off the rest of the clan by making Hakken his heir rather than any of his first wife's five sons, but Outguard rules say the Head chooses his successor rather than it being primogeniture, even though most Heads _do_ pick their firstborns, so there wasn't anything they could do about it. Especially since Ōmime hadn't started leadership training for any of his older sons previously."

"Spoil our fun," Kita grouches playfully.

"Well, Hakken _did_ have eight sons," Madara concedes, "and though he gave them proper traditional Uchiha names rather than name them after swords, his successor as Head _was_ his third son Tsurugi. And Hakken _was_ a ferocious fighter who took his enemies' swords as trophies, so there's a grain of truth in the other versions as well."

"Ha!" Sakurajima says triumphantly, sticking her tongue out at Sahoro.

"His firstborn, Hakkyō, was the gambler," Madara adds, "Which is why he _wasn't_ picked to succeed his father. His second son went into steel-smithing, I believe." It's all ancient Amaterasu lineage history rather than the shared clan rolls, taken from fragile diaries and fading letters and obituaries rather than meticulously copied formal accounts; those formal scrolls don't go back much more than five hundred years, but the Uchiha have older documents than that. The older documents just contradict each-other most of the time.

He likes to wander into the back of the Clan Archives sometimes and carefully leaf through the elderly documents, memorising the pages to muse over later and amuse himself with the day-to-day doings of long-dead ancestors.

Izuna does it too. It's honestly incredibly soothing.

"When was Uchiha Hakken Outguard Head?" Tobirama asks, shifting the sealing scroll slung across his back so it bounces less.

"Eight hundred years ago?" Yōko ventures after a collective pause for thought. "Maybe, give or take fifty years?"

"Thereabouts," Madara agrees; the older documents all use different dating systems, so it's hard to pin down what happened when; they could be up to a century out on the dates there. "Well before the imperial capital and surrounding countryside got blasted off the map by the Kyuubi, at least."

"That was the Kyuubi?"

Madara glances back at Tobirama again, keeping the hooded bird on his wrist perfectly steady. "Oh yes. One of the few things our records _all_ agree on, that. Can't agree on the date, but there are some profoundly disturbing eye-witness accounts and a lot of ink paintings if you're interested." He's fairly sure the entire _clan_ activated their sharingan just seeing it happen, right down to the toddlers. "As well as some census documents which give an idea of how many people died that day." Which at least set the date of the disaster as roughly seven hundred years ago, give or take a generation.

Over half the continent's population had lived on imperial land at that time and most of them hadn't made it out when the tsunami swept the plains clean before the bijuu finished breaking up the continental shelf so it sank beneath the waves. The Uchiha had only survived the catastrophe because then-Heads Uchiha Aka and Naka –who were twins– had just had a rather loud falling out with the Emperor, so had removed most of the clan and associated vassals from the capital and environs until his Imperial Majesty calmed down again. Their caravan had been on the road in the mountains of what was now Fire's south-eastern coast when Kyuubi descended, so had enjoyed a really good view of the destruction as it took place.

For a given value of the word 'enjoyed.'

Looking back, Madara has to wonder what their argument with the emperor had been _about_. There are vague hints in the documents –a reference to the Kyuubi as 'destroyer of corruption and impurity' has implications– and there are clan laws put in place at that time which add to the picture, but nothing definite one way or the other.

What _is_ clear is that Aka and Naka considered themselves to have been unquestionably in the right, with the Kyuubi's destruction of the emperor and all of his court bar the Uchiha twins and their family as a clear divine judgement on the matter.

"Was Uchiha Naka a woman?" Tobirama asks after a long pause.

"We're honestly not sure," Kita admits easily. "Records say Aka and Naka were identical twins and they certainly had younger brothers, so they were _probably_ men, but there've been daughters picked over sons to succeed their fathers before now –Uchiha Biei-Fuji for one, now _there_ was a brilliant warrior– so they could have been sisters? Their spouses certainly had ambiguous names as well, so there's really no way to be certain." She snorts. "Naka's always been a popular name in the clan, but it's only in the last few hundred years that it's been for daughters only."

"The Uchiha in the period after we started fighting the Senju certainly made a point of prioritising military prowess over political acumen or birth order when selecting Outguard Heads," Madara agrees. Warrior skills are still considered a sign of the strength of the Amaterasu lineage; his own incredible strength and perceptiveness are why his father kept him as heir even after Izuna started to show signs of being barely any less skilled in actual combat.

He didn't actually get _recognised_ as Outguard Heir until he was fifteen, when Kita was betrothed to him; up until then it had been unofficial and therefore potentially subject to change. Not that he'd realised he might have been replaced by Izuna until many years later, of course; _that_ information only showed up in his later studies into the more obscure traditions of the Outguard, starting when he was twenty.

"Can you tell me more about Uchiha Biei-Fuji?" Tobirama asks after another pause.

"Oh _yes_ ," Sakurajima says enthusiastically. "She had three husbands!"

"One husband, two male concubines," Kita corrects, the smile in her voice audible. "One of whom was a Senju and a spoil of war."

" _What_?"

"Your clan don't teach you about Senju Kabema, who flirted too much when he fought and got carried off by an Uchiha Outguard Head never to be seen again?" Sahoro asks, also very audibly grinning. "I know he's the reason our current diplomatic quarters with its chakra-suppressing seals got built; he lived in there eleven years and fathered five of her children before he finally gave up on escaping and got moved into the main hall, where he sired another three."

"They do _not_ and that is clearly a _serious_ oversight," Tobirama mutters. "What about her other, er, spouses?"

"Her official husband was her second cousin Uchiha Izuna –it's a fairly popular Amaterasu lineage name– but he only fathered one of her children and seeing as he had a male lover of his own, I'm not too surprised Biei-Fuji picked up concubines," Madara drawls. "The other concubine was Uchiha Otofuke, father of Biei-Fuji's remaining four children and formerly the gardener to the clan hall; a man of no particular lineage, but very kind and loved her dearly." Also a good fifteen older than Biei-Fuji, but compared to the relationship with Senju Kabema that was nothing really. The unfortunate Senju had spent most of his first eighteen months in the 'diplomatic quarters' chained to a wall, only being permanently released after the birth of his first child; not that being chained up had stopped him from flirting. The main reason all his later escape attempts had been unsuccessful was that he'd always tried to leave _with_ one or other of his children, who generally hadn't wanted to leave.

"Thirteen children?" Tobirama sounds appalled.

"She was a very energetic and lusty lady," Kita says mischievously, "and used to continue going into battle until she was six months pregnant. She always handed her children off to her sisters to wet-nurse right after they were born too, so she could get back to the battlefield."

"Lived to be seventy-seven as well," Sakurajima says idly; "outlived her husband _and_ both concubines. Clearly the lifestyle was good for her." Madara hopes Sajurajima isn't planning on emulating Biei-Fuji's personal habits; with the treaty she can't steal a Senju off the battlefield, but that doesn't make Biei-Fuji's various other domestic foibles any more healthy or appropriate.

"How long ago was this exactly?"

"Two hundred and seventy years, maybe?" Kita offers. "There's a _lot_ written about Biei-Fuji; she scandalised _all_ the elders and Lineage Heads but they couldn't do anything about her because the Homeguard Head of the time was her younger brother Furano, who just so happened to be Izuna's lover and therefore _very invested_ in keeping his big sister both in power and busy with her concubines. So there's a _lot_ of extremely inconsistent literature about her, from poems celebrating her many military triumphs to letters bewailing her personal habits. Some Uchiha about forty years back tried to track Kabema's descendents in our clan, but I think they gave up six generations in due to not being able to decide whether daughters counted as much as sons." She giggles behind her sleeve. "Biei-Fuji's one of the reasons Uchiha arranged marriages have a get-out clause if you happen to fall madly in love with somebody else before the wedding ceremony."

"I can see how that would be the case." Tobirama sounds suspiciously amused.

"Do you have any fun Senju stories, Tobirama-san?" Yōko asks hopefully.

"My clan unfortunately do not make a habit of documenting amusing family history–" Tobirama's tone is _deeply_ ambivalent there "–but I do know some entertaining Uzumaki anecdotes from my Baasan. And when Anija was learning mokuton he turned six separate buildings into impassable thickets, which is why he knows how to grow houses now."

"Ooh, tell us about Hashirama destroying houses!" Sahoro demands gleefully.

"It started when he was eight and really making progress with his mokuton," Tobirama begins, a particular note in his voice that is clearly common to little brothers everywhere who are about to derive great pleasure from embarrassing their older siblings. "At which point Tōsan started him on swords as well, which he didn't like because he wasn't at _all_ good at it and growing trees was more fun. So about three months into daily sword lessons he ran off and had a screaming tantrum in Rika-ba's house and reverted all the beams and boards to living trees." He pauses for effect. "Rika-ba really was _not_ impressed. Tōsan wasn't either, since his sister now needed a new house and until it was built she moved back into the clan hall with her husband and four children."

There is a chorus of snickering behind Madara; he doesn't blame them, it's _hilarious_ and he's definitely going to bring it up next time he sees his friend.

"Unfortunately for Anija," Tobirama continues blandly, "having suddenly gained the ability to reanimate dead wood he then struggled to keep it under control when emotions were running high. Rika-ba's house was followed by the houses of two other clansmen, one of the medical offices and a granary; that last one got him into a _lot_ of trouble."

There's a low whistle from Sakurajima; yes, Madara can see why.

"Tōsan then forced him to spend a two weeks in seclusion on the far edge of clan grounds and ordered him to replace all the buildings himself," Tobirama went on, tone flatter now, "which resulted in one other clansman's house suffering an unfortunately vigorous sprouting accident due to Anija trying to survey it with his chakra in order to try and get a feel for its shape. But before winter arrived he _did_ manage to grow some half-decent houses, so Rika-ba did not make good on her threat to turn his guts into biwa strings. He kept on working on his architectural abilities for the next two years, replacing previously-made houses with improved versions, until both he and Rika-ba were satisfied with their quality. Those final houses are still standing to this day."

"What happened to the thickets?" Yōko asks curiously.

"We cut them down; both for firewood and to get everybody's belongings out of them," Tobirama says dryly. "Anija's trees have a tendency to engulf anything in their general vicinity; retrieving Rika-ba's hairpins and kimono took careful whittling."

"Didn't Hashirama help?" Madara asks. He knows his friend can make his trees vanish as easily as they appear.

"He was unfortunately suffering from his first ever experience of chakra exhaustion at the time," Tobirama says, tone somehow even drier than before, "and therefore unavailable. Not that it saved him from Rika-ba's wrath when he finally woke up." He pauses. "Which, incidentally, is what did for the medical office."

Even Madara laughs this time.


	5. Chapter 5

June is wet. June is always wet, which is a good thing for rice farmers and an awkward necessity for everybody else. Those days when the sun shines are appreciated for their dryness, but honestly everybody secretly prefers overcast skies at this time of year. It's just so humid that adding direct sunlight makes breathing feel like a steam bath.

It's not like the work stops just because it's hot and the air is soggy. Everything still needs doing. 'Everything,' in this instance, being the building of the two mission-vetting offices down on the new village site so that both Uchiha and Senju can start taking missions again without accidentally clashing.

Tobirama is eating breakfast after his first night back in the Uchiha Clan Hall –he overslept but feels very well-rested now, he definitely needs to go over his bedding for seals later– when Madara walks in, hair damp and Izuna at his heels.

"There you are," the Uchiha Outguard Head –now he knows the proper form of address he is going to make a point of using it– says, as though Tobirama would have been anywhere else. "Finish up and get your coat; we're building the mission offices today."

"We?" Tobirama asks, raising an eyebrow.

Izuna huffs. "We've got to show you Senju what building a proper house looks like, don't we?" He says crisply. "A message has been sent over to your clan to let them know that we're starting today, so hopefully there'll be enough people on site to get the outer frames done."

"It's raining," Tobirama points out. Not particularly hard, but it's hardly ideal construction weather.

"Yes, it is," Izuna agrees, eyes hard, "and the river is high, like we need it to be so we set the plots far enough back from the banks that they don't get swept away next spring when the snows melt. And it's easier to pack clay when it's damp like this."

Tobirama realises that while both Uchiha are wearing their coats, under them they are simply dressed in rather faded indigo shirts and trousers, with plain leg wraps and no arm guards. They also both have their hair tied back, Izuna in a short ponytail and Madara in a loose topknot; they look like they are expecting to work hard and get all manner of stains on their clothing.

He finishes his breakfast and gets to his feet. "Who else is coming?"

"A few elders and a good number of bored warriors," Madara replies, taking the bowl and chopsticks off him and handing them down to the unfamiliar young woman who is cooking in the kitchen, "as well as a few craftspeople. We're going to need to fell the trees and saw then into manageable pieces before we start building, then bring the trunks up here and take seasoned planks and beams down for the frames. Then it's a matter of packing the outer frames with smaller branches and clay, making sure all the cross-beams are properly lashed and fitted for the upper storey and putting the roof on." He pauses. "Should probably do tiles for that, unless we're going to seal the shingles against fire."

"Shingles will be quicker, niisan," Izuna says as Tobirama heads back towards his bedroom to change into something he doesn't mind getting mud all over, "and we can always replace them later so long as the roof beams are sturdy enough. If we're going to take on the onus of providing our new allies with building materials as well as labour then they should pay us for our trouble."

He doesn't hear how that argument ends; by the time he's changed and come back out the brothers are discussing whether the mission offices will need piped water and whether they should leave space for drainage to be included later or just foreshorten the entire building and put water access and a toilet in separately on another occasion.

"Separately means we don't have to worry about undermining the foundations and we can connect them to the rest of the office with a timber walkway," Izuna says, sharingan out and hands moving in a way that implies he is pointing to things in an illusion only he and Madara can see. Genjutsu as a modelling technique? That's a new idea.

"That does look practical," Madara agrees, "but we'll have to see what the others think; we're not the specialists here."

Izuna's hands drop and his sharingan fades, but his face is still tight. "I'll convince Hiuchi, niisan. Although you still haven't explained where this village's piped water is going to come _from_."

"The water table, mainly," Madara says easily, nodding at Tobirama and heading for the genkan. "We can sink wells easily enough. And I thought we could cut some reservoirs behind the cliffs, for rainwater. The water treatment works are going to have to be either along the riverside or underground; we haven't done a proper land survey yet, but that's next up."

"Bringing civilians in?" Izuna asks, not giving Tobirama his back as they put on their sandals and walk out into the drizzle.

"I was honestly going to offer it as a contract to the Hyūga," Madara admits, "but if you think civilians would do it better..?"

Izuna hums thoughtfully; Tobirama hadn't been aware that the Uchiha had any significant dealings with the Hyūga, who live on the far side of Fire Country and tend to keep very much to themselves. Yes, there _was_ that long-ago alliance to consider, but that could simply have been dōjutsu clan solidarity; the Hyūga don't take missions outside their patch and take very poorly to any shinobi attempting to run missions in _their_ territory. As the Senju experience regularly for themselves; the Hyūga don't even like other shinobi passing _through,_ which is awkward when Uzushio is off the coast of the far side of their lands. It's a long detour to make, so the Senju often don't.

"We'd do better to ask whether they have anybody with surveying expertise," Izuna says eventually, "as that way they can offer if they do and if not their pride is not injured by our pointing out a deficiency. They _should_ have somebody though; their territory's far more earthquake-prone than ours is."

"I wonder if that rock pillar jutsu can be repurposed to just lift a section of the local geology rather than compacting it?" Madara wonders, striding towards the large cluster of other Uchiha, many of whom are carrying spades, picks, saws and ropes in addition to the usual ubiquitous bags. It's an odd group; three greying men and two dozen teenagers, as well as maybe eight men and women in their mid-to-late twenties. "Is this everybody?"

"Tsune's sending some of the kids down with bento at noon and Naka-Ninefingers is going over the seasoned beams, but basically there's enough of everything to build both offices so long as you don't decide to re-create the clan hall twice over, Madara-sama," a familiar man calls out.

"You say that like it's going to be me making that decision," Madara retorts, which gets a laugh.

"Good to see you respecting your elders, Madara-kun!" A grey-haired but very spry man teases.

"I know where my skills lie, Ishihara-sensei, and they are _not_ in construction," Madara replies no less warmly. "Now, let's get moving; we've a lot to do and the sooner it's done, the sooner I can start sending people out on missions again."

There's a cheer from the younger members of the crowd and the Uchiha turn towards the compound's gate en masse, separating into groups of four and five as they shoulder their tools and head out of the compound. Tobirama follows, finding himself in a group containing Izuna, a vaguely familiar younger man whose chakra feels rather more feathery than the other Uchiha present, a teenage girl with messily spiked hair that sticks up at the back of her head and a much older man with grey streaks at his temples, deep wrinkles and a general air of total calm.

"Hi, Senju-san!" The girl says, tone bright and eyes sharp. "I'm Hideo! Kita-sama's my cousin. This is Hiuchi-san, he looks after Madara-sama's hawks, and Hijiri-sempai, who's Hikaku-sama's younger brother. Izuna-sama you know already."

"Drop the -sama, Hide-chan, we're all warriors together," Izuna says in the long-suffering tones of someone who has asked this many times before.

"Fine, Izuna-nii then," Hideo –which is a boy's name, but Izuna called her Hide-chan so maybe this is another Uchiha tradition he's stumbled into– concedes. "What do you want to be called, Senju-san? Since we're probably going to be working with a load of other Senju-sans?"

"Tobirama-san is fine, Hideo-san." He will use the name she introduced herself with.

Hideo makes a face. "Hideo- _kun_ , please."

"Hideo-kun then." Tobirama hesitates. "Izuna-san called you Hide-chan?"

"Yes he _did_ ," Hideo says balefully as they leave the compound gates and pick up speed, "but that's because I called him Izuna-sama first and he hates it when us in the Outguard call him that, even for formal introductions. I'm a _warrior_ so I'm Hideo-kun to all my sempai, even if my mother still calls me Hide-chan."

"Warriors all use masculine names then," Tobirama deduces; clearly this is part and parcel of why Uchiha warriors also dress as similarly as possible and hide obvious gender markers.

"It's safer in the field," Hijiri says shortly. "This _isn't_ the field," he adds, glancing at Hideo, "but you should still practice."

"Is this about my shirt?"

"You're not wearing the right undershirt."

"It's too hot for it, sempai!"

"Then regulate your chakra better," Hijiri says unsympathetically, then sighs. "When we arrive, hang back and have Kanmuri show you how to use your summer wrap to disguise your figure, then do your shirt up properly." He pauses. "And lower your voice."

"Like this?" Hideo's voice drops half a register.

"Better. Your hair's fine," Hijiri adds, "but maybe think about getting a tattoo once you're sixteen."

"Thanks, Hijiri-sempai!"

Tobirama has a feeling he's missed something; what about being told to get a tattoo merits that burst of delight from Hideo? He will have to ask later.

"You can ask now," Izuna says, making Tobirama twitch; evidently his regular opponent really _does_ know him far too well for comfort, even off the battlefield.

"What is the significance of the tattoos?" Facial tattoos are _not_ a common choice of adornment for women, discounting unisex clan markings like the Inuzuka have.

"Generally, they're showing dedication to a particular kami or invoking their protection," Izuna says flatly. "Specifically, women in the Outguard whose looks diverge from the clan standard of slender and sharp-boned are encouraged to get facial tattoos so enemies look at the ink, not the curves."

So Hijiri telling Hideo to consider a tattoo is implying she's too pretty to pass as a man, which is indeed something a teenage girl would consider complimentary. Also…

"Is Kita-san considered normal in that sense?" Madara's wife has a classically slim figure, if a rather more angular face than is considered traditionally beautiful.

There's a round of snorts. "Superficially, maybe," Hijiri concedes _very_ dryly, "and I know Tajima-sama successfully passed her off as a boy on a lot of fūinjutsu expeditions when she was younger. But it only holds true so long as she pads her waist and doesn't smile."

"Yeah, men don't smile like that," Izuna agrees darkly. "Not in _any_ of the ways she can twist a smile."

"How so?" Tobirama has seen Kita smile a few times and there's nothing particularly unusual about the expression. Any of them, really.

"Kita-sama," Hiuchi-san replies very finally, "smiles like a tiger."

That observation ends the conversation decisively; Tobirama spends the rest of the –admittedly brief– journey in deep thought.

* * *

The entire clan now knows she's pregnant –Kita suspects Sakurajima, Yōko wouldn't breathe a word to anybody except Yori without permission and Yori wouldn't spread it around either– which is why Kita is currently hosting Grandma, Ohabari-oba and Naeba, who is a cousin of some degree on Papa's side of the family, what with being niece to Aunt Nikko, Tekari's sensei in shuriken-making.

Well, _technically_ she's hosting them. What's actually happening is that she's getting a crash course in Uchiha Pregnancy Expectations now that Toshi and Azami have finally decided that she won't vanish if they go and play in the garden for a few hours.

"Just two months, Kita-chan? And you told your husband anyway?"

Kita eyes Grandma. "We are hosting Tobirama-san, who is well-known for his exceptional sensory skills; I preferred to inform my husband in a time and manner of my choosing, Baasan."

Grandma huffs, but changes her tone to something less disapproving. "Well, since you _are_ currently expecting and your husband is aware of it, there are certain expectations, Kita-chan."

"There is a small futon, miniature blankets and folding screens belonging to the Amaterasu lineage that you will expected to use, Kita-chan," Ohabari-oba continues gently, smiling over her tea, "as well as dolls for girls' day if you have a daughter, and helmets and Kintarō dolls should you have a son."

Kita never had the decorative court dolls that are traditionally set out on Girls' Day; her family weren't wealthy enough for that. They'd had pretty paper dolls, with delicate lace-like coloured layers which together mimicked patterned kimono; Mama had kept them in the bottom of her jewel box. She'd had simple wooden dolls to play with, which she had left behind for her younger sisters when she was betrothed.

"Are all those things in the loft here, Ohabari-oba?" She has been in the loft before, but she has never really had the time or the inclination to poke around. When Tajima-sama was alive it seemed unwise and since his death she has been relentlessly busy with her girls.

"Yes they are, which is why we are here: to go over everything so you know where it all is and what it is for, and so we can move some of it down into the nursery next to your bedroom, shift Toshi and Azami's futon across into the other bedroom with Benten and help you prepare for some of the changes you may experience as your child grows within you."

"It's awkward and strange and wonderful and dreadful all at once," Naeba says dryly, "and it's different each time, so you don't really get used to it. All you can do is hope that when you're holding your child in your arms you feel it's worth it." She smiles wryly. "And still think it's worth it after six months of no sleep, but considering you raised your twins from birth I'm sure you're already well-aware of that part." Naeba has two toddlers, both boys, with a little over a year between them.

"Oh yes," Kita agrees as both older ladies snort.

"So, let's start with what's in the loft," Ohabari-oba says, getting to her feet, "and once we've seen that you can decide what you want to use and what you want made new. Oh yes, Kita-chan," she says warmly in response to Kita's evidently visible surprise. "The clan is very wealthy now thanks to your efforts and everybody will want to give gifts to you and to our new heir. Commissioning such things is part of leadership; you much provide opportunities for generosity and gratitude to be appropriately expressed."

"Let us see what there is first," Kita prevaricates. "And, can you tell me stories? About when Madara and Izuna were little?"

Ohabari-oba's smile widens. "Oh, I would be _delighted_ , Kita-chan. I've been most remiss in not sharing those, haven't I?"

"I have stories about Minami I could tell you as well, Kita-chan," Grandma says softly. "About when your kaasan was a little girl, and when she was expecting you."

"I would love to hear them, Baasan," Kita says quietly past the sudden lump in her throat.

"Well, I didn't get on all that well with my own mother when I was a young woman, not being interested in the family craft despite being her firstborn and turning to her mother-in-law for weaving lessons instead, but it was my little Minami who brought us back together," Grandma says quietly as Ohabari-oba and Naeba tactfully head up into the loft without them. "My little girl was just three, but she looked at my mother's embroidery and demanded to be taught. Okaasan had taught my younger sisters to print and paint and sew, but none of them had the eye or the patience for rearing silk and stitching patchwork. _My_ firstborn though, my little Minami, she _charmed_ my haughty Okaasan with her eagerness and determination. Kita-chan, your mother never showed the slightest interest in anything else, bar your father of course; even teaching her plain weave was a terrible struggle and she always hated to cook even though she was more than passable at doing so. But her coats… oh, how she _loved_ making those coats."

Grandma shakes her head. "When she was pregnant she said she wanted a boy, a son to follow in her husband's footsteps, but when you were born she confided in me that really, secretly, she had wanted a daughter she could teach to sew. And she had you, Kita-chan; you were so eager to learn and so determined! You brought her so much joy. You surpassed her with your designs and your eye for colour and Minami could not have been more proud; she boasted about you, Kita-chan. She boasted terribly to all my sisters and nieces, who had always resented that she was my okaasan's successor, saying that her Kita-chan was everything her obaasan would have wanted. And you _are_ all that and more, Kita-chan. Had she still lived when Tajima-sama demanded you for his son, Okaasan would never have let _anybody_ forget it."

Kita presses her face into her handkerchief and sniffles. She doesn't remember ever meeting Grandma's mother, but Mama told her that Great-Grandma had held her when she was a baby and had been delighted to have a great-granddaughter.

It hurts and heals something in her heart to know that for all her doting on Jōnen and Tekari, Mama had truly wanted a daughter, wanted _her_.

"My okaasan had stopped stitching coats by the time you were born, the arthritis in her fingers making it impossible for her to hold a needle, but she would look over all Minami's work and find every misplaced stitch! Oh, it made your kaasan so angry! But then my little girl presented you to her and Okaasan called you a masterpiece. Told Minami you were the most beautiful work she would ever make, with your embroiderer's fingers and wrists." Grandma wraps an arm around Kita's shoulders, pulling her close. "And she was right, you know? You _are_ beautiful, granddaughter. The many works of your hands have brought joy and strength to our clan and honour to our lineage." She chuckles. "And you have the full clan look as well; every inch an Uchiha. No wonder that pale Senju is so taken with you."

"Baasan!"

"He _watches_ you, Kita-chan," Grandma says sternly. "I know you've noticed; you're an observant girl. Be mindful of that; I'm not the only one to have seen it. The new Mizuhame boy has been grumbling about it and I'm sure Madara-sama is paying attention too."

"My husband," Kita says coolly, "trusts my heart, strength and judgement. He has plans for the Senju and this treaty is barely the beginning of what we mean to build." She will not have her fidelity questioned!

Grandma eyes her. "Well I'll not pry into what your husband has asked of you, Kita-chan, but remember you have a child to prepare for now," she concedes. "The world is a different place once you are raising your child in it."

Kita does not get to say that she has been raising children for nearly ten years now, since taking in Benten, or remind Grandma that she adopted the twins when they were still wet and bloody; Ohabari-oba and Naeba descend from the loft with boxes and bundles and the rest of the morning is spent on less emotionally fraught matters.

* * *

The Uchiha clan haven't really been building very many new houses in recent years; most of the work has been maintaining their existing houses, so that when all the younger children grow up there will be space for them to live independently and run their own workshops and farms. Recognising Sakurajima as an adult created a lot of excitement because, as an adult and head to a previously mythic lineage, she didn't have a proper residence to move into; this led to a few barns being relocated, a farmhouse being demolished and a storehouse being moved so that a suitably fine house could be built along the curve around the clan hall with all the other lineage heads. Sahoro isn't an adult yet, so is only head of his lineage by technicality and doesn't have a designated residence.

That's a few years off.

Sakurajima did not get as much of a say in her house as she perhaps would have liked, which she retaliated to by moving eight children and their carer into said very large new residence. Nominally to maintain it for her, seeing as it was finished right before she was due to leave for the treaty negotiations, but really to annoy all the elders and high-ranking clansmen who don't like the idea of six orphans of no lineage, two of them bastards, living in such a fine property.

Never mind that Kaoru, the woman who cares for them, has more two children of her own, never married and therefore has a rather dubious reputation. _Especially_ when one of her children has out-clan colouring; that Kaoru is involved in negotiating with Fire Country's black market –who generally _don't_ want to see Uchiha warriors on their doorstep and certainly wouldn't _write_ to them– unfortunately doesn't help her there.

Madara privately applauds Sakurajima for her well-executed scheme and show of autonomy, but practically he could have done without the complaints; he specifically conferred early adulthood on her to make it clear he is _not_ responsible for her decisions and choices. If it doesn't relate to her battlefield performance then it is _not_ his problem!

Practically speaking though, that most of his warriors have been kicking around and getting increasingly bored over the past month means that a lot of them are keen to get involved in building the new mission vetting office, despite the certainty of having to work alongside Senju whom they last saw across a battlefield. Madara therefore has plenty of volunteers; he mostly takes the younger ones, since there is quite a lot of other manual work around the compound that needs more experienced hands and those of his warriors who are parents deserve time with their children.

The clan also has plenty of building materials: Kita's umbrella bags grant the Uchiha almost unlimited storage space, so properly dried and seasoned beams can simply by packed up by the hundred and stored in a fraction of the space, making room for more beams to be seasoned. Wood sells well, so his father ordered those clansmen who cut trees for charcoal to occasionally cut down whole trees rather than just sawing branches here and there. As a result the Uchiha have a respectable stockpile of posts, boards and beams for both maintenance and new constructions, so won't have to build with green wood.

Madara's seen how green boards warp and twist; he has no idea how Hashirama can grow a house and not have that happen a year or two down the line. Are the houses _living_ wood? If so, what sustains them if they don't have leaves? Why don't they try to _grow_ leaves? A tree is a tree after all; all of his friend's old battlefields are impassable thickets now, even if to begin with they were largely bare wood and churned mud.

The intended building site doesn't look like anything special; it's just massive trees punctuated with underbrush and bamboo with a wider range of flowering plants along the riverside. It's the right place though; this is the spot on the map that he and Hashirama decided to put their respective clan mission offices, either side of an as-yet non-existent road heading south over the river towards the nearest civilian villages.

"Kamui, lay out the markers like I showed you," Madara orders; the squad leader in question produces reels of dyed yellow cord from her umbrella bag and drops a genjutsu over the area so that the rest of her temporary squad can put down bamboo pegs and tie the cord between them. Usually they wouldn't bother with rope at all, but the Senju will probably be twitchy at the idea of working under three different overlapping genjutsu like Uchiha generally do –it makes laying everything straight so much easier– so civilian methods it is. Today at least.

"Atago, Mineo, strip all the trees that fall inside the lines; Eniwa, decide what branches we're keeping for charcoal as opposed to stripping to pad out the outer walls. Rakko, Satoshi, you're both with Eniwa for now." Mineo and Satoshi have their names in the clan records as Minemi and Satomi, but highlighting gender on the battlefield like that really is not safe. "Izuna, with me."

Izuna and his very motley squad –Hijiri, Hideo-kun who's not seen a battlefield yet, Hiuchi the falconer who's been retired from the Outguard for almost as long as Madara's been alive and Senju Tobirama– walk up to join him as around them everybody else leaps into action, shedding coats and leaning tools against trees outside the boundary lines.

"What're we doing then, niisan?" Izuna asks, lagging behind and carefully positioned so that Tobirama never leaves his field of vision. The Senju is looking back over his shoulder at Atago and Mineo's squads, who are in the trees and already sawing off lower branches in sections for Rakko, Satoshi and Eniwa's squads to move out of the way for trimming, stripping of leaves and sorting according to width and type. Different woods have different grains, making them suited for different things; nobody is going to use pine for building with when pine charcoal is so valuable.

"We're mapping this section of the river for a bridge; it'll be easier having messengers come here than to our respective clan compounds and then moving the requests here for sorting," Madara says briskly. "The buildings are well back from the river to protect from flooding, but we need to see what the ground is like and decide how far from the bank to sink the posts." The Uchiha _do_ technically have a bridge, but it's actually a portable floor they balance over a pair of boats at a specific point of the river bank when necessary. Secure, cheap and easily replaced.

"How do you map a river?" Tobirama asks curiously.

"The usual way is to use sticks at regular intervals to track depth, then use blades or jutsu to work out how deep the clay goes before we hit bedrock," Izuna says shortly, "but since you're here you could just lift the river out of its bed for a bit so we can map it with the sharingan."

"Why can't you –of course, water bends light," Tobirama murmurs.

"It's a little tricky to compensate for," Madara agrees lightly. "Especially moving water in a river rather than a pond, and there's the sediment to consider as well." Really though, it's more that all the currents and tangling flow patterns are terribly distracting.

There is a flex of chakra –several other clansmen pause and turn their way– and then the section of river closest to the markers Kamui's squad have set out is flowing up a curving arch overhead and down again a good way downstream. "Like so?"

"Perfect," Madara says appreciatively, activating his sharingan and striding right up to the edge of the bank, turning his head slowly to take in all the details as Izuna darts across to the far side to do likewise.

"Got it," his brother agrees, hands flickering through a modified echolocation jutsu and pressing his hands to the ground, then fishing more bamboo pegs out of his bag. "Hideo, set up the sketch board," he orders as an area effect genjutsu flicks into existence in front of him, showing the section of bedrock revealed by the jutsu and its depth beneath the clay.

Behind Madara there's a rustle and a few clunks as Hideo kneels on the damp leaves with the portable desk. "Ready!"

Izuna moves downstream, setting the pegs at regular intervals, doing the echolocation jutsu and adding to the genjutsu as he goes, the land profile under the clay becoming increasingly visible.

"Usually we'd leave the genjutsu up," Madara mentions to Tobirama, who is holding the river like it's no effort at all, "but I doubt your clansmen will be comfortable working like that."

"Not at this time perhaps," Tobirama agrees, "but a few demonstrations so they can get used to the idea might be in order? It's a very practical application and evidently makes measuring and checking much less complicated."

"Done, Izuna-nii!" Hideo chirps. Izuna then walks into the middle of the only slightly damp riverbed and crouches, then takes a measured step forwards and crouches again, foot skidding slightly on a patch of water weed.

"What's he doing?" Tobirama asks, vaguely baffled.

"He's memorising the profile; how the incline of the riverbank changes," Madara explains. This technique mostly gets used to memorise valley profiles and canyons for effective staggered genjutsu traps and picking ambush points, but it has peaceful applications as well.

Izuna arrives back at his first peg, leaves the riverbank on the side the rest of them are standing on and sticks in a peg opposite his first peg. "There, you can put the river back now."

Tobirama does so –very smoothly, not a drop spilled or a fish lost– then turns to watch as Hideo neatly draws out the sequence of river profiles, sharingan spinning at the exact same slow pace as Izuna's. "It's not as detailed as I can see in my head, sempai," she complains as she unrolls a new section of scroll for the bedrock profiles of the near side of the river.

"It's just a guideline, Hideo-kun; we'll use the genjutsu model when actually laying the posts," Izuna says calmly. "What you're writing is for if the bridge ever needs repairing or replacing, so the surveying doesn't need to be done again and whoever does the replacing can see what our methods were."

Izuna maps the bedrock profile of this side of the river as well –Hideo copying it down– and then it's time for arguing over what type of bridge to put in and how long to make it.

"A single arch bridge is stronger and more elegant."

"Maybe, but the river's fairly wide and the banks aren't very high, even if the channel's decently deep; a flat bridge between piles is more practical."

"Then we have to replace the pillars!"

"Well it's that or raising the bank and that's not exactly practical either, is it?"

"Can you show me the genjutsu model, please?" Tobirama interrupts.

Izuna raises an eyebrow. "You _want_ me to put you under a genjutsu, Senju?"

Tobirama huffs. "I know considerably more about water than either of you," he says tartly, "and I would like to see what we have to work with."

"We?" Izuna demands.

"Yes, Izuna-san; _we_." Tobirama folds his arms. "If you would be so kind."

Izuna's sharingan spins briefly; Tobirama stills, forehead furrowing. "If you cut down to the bedrock _here_ ," he says, pointing to a section of the near bank on the floating illusory model between them, "and used the stone to raise the profile over _there_ ," he points to the section of bank opposite where they are standing, "it would then match this side and suitable stone pillars could be put in to support an arch between them."

"Ha, see, even _he_ thinks an arch would be better," Izuna says triumphantly.

"A wide, shallow arch would also be suitable for carts and wagons, so that civilians could make goods deliveries to the eventual village," Tobirama continues. "The river current is fairly strong and there is very little sediment over the bedrock in the channel, so piles would have to either be sunk into the bedrock or stone pillars raised, neither of which is particularly practical." He pauses. "It might be wise to bring in additional stone, to raise the bridge a little further in case of spring flooding."

Madara ponders this as Izuna frowns at the model, adding an overlay to model Tobirama's suggestion and grudgingly tweaking it to the Senju's instructions. "The cliffs are a different stone to what's under our feet, isn't it?"

"Yes," Izuna says immediately. "The cliffs are sandstone; what's under us is rather more solid than that."

"Impermeable," Tobirama corrects absently. "The bedrock is a largely impermeable layer, which is why the river flows over it rather than sinking through it. Sandstone is more porous; I suspect what is under our feet is some degree of metamorphic, considering there are natural hot springs scattered right across Fire Country."

"So we need to cut stone from elsewhere for our bridge foundations," Madara summarises; stone is not something he's ever made a study of, although it's clearly come up in Tobirama's investigations into how his own element behaves. "Probably the hills east or north of here; they're not sandstone." Sandstone's actually rather unusual in this part of Fire Country, so it's a bit strange having these massive cliffs in the middle of nowhere.

"Something for another day then," Hiuchi says calmly. "We can put a footbridge in a little way off to one side of need be."

"Anija could grow one," Tobirama suggests as Izuna shatters the illusion.

"Speaking of, when _are_ the Senju supposed to get here?" Izuna asks. "At this rate we'll be done before they show up."

It's true that three of the trees inside the marked-out sections are now nothing more than bare trunks and two warriors have already been sent back to the compound with bags full of small logs for turning into charcoal; there's still a _lot_ to do before they can start digging foundations though.

"That depends entirely on who received the message, what they were doing at the time and what the clan has been engaged in over the past weeks," Tobirama replies shortly. "Evidently Anija was not the one contacted, or else he'd already be here with half the clan."

"I directed the message to Tōka-san," Hijiri says, speaking up for the first time.

"In which case she is likely ensuring everyone she brings is personally comfortable with working alongside Uchiha and does not have more pressing matters to be getting on with," Tobirama continues, "which takes time. She may also be attempting to persuade Hashirama that his presence is not necessary just yet."

"By the Seven Lucky Gods I hope he _doesn't_ show," Izuna mutters, grimacing. "I don't want people falling off the trees in a panic." Which some of the teenagers may well _do_ ; there are certainly enough horror stories about Hashirama floating around the clan that being up a tree in his general vicinity would make almost anybody paranoid. There are Tobirama stories too, but it's hard to be irrationally frightened of somebody after you've seen them sitting though a toddler's tea party between a doll and a cat-faced cushion, gravely complimenting the river pebbles standing in for sweets.

Hopefully a suitably innocuous introduction to Hashirama will help Madara's clansmen be less afraid, but innocuous is unlikely when they are cutting down trees.

"Let me write a note?" Tobirama suggests, apprehension colouring his chakra. "After all, we're not exactly _building_ yet, are we? Just clearing ground."

The implications are immediately grasped by all present –delaying Hashirama's arrival until all the obstructing trees are felled so nobody can fall out of one– a narrow strip of paper is produced for Tobirama to write on and Hijiri summons a crow, which after being bribed with a polished shuriken allows the paper to be wrapped around its leg before taking off in the direction of the Senju compound.

"Well in light of hopefully having more manpower shortly," Madara says as the crow vanishes from sight above the canopy, "we should probably start felling the stripped trees." Which means carefully burning out the roots and toppling them in a pre-arranged direction, so they can be cut into sections and carried away; this method keeps them from disturbing the forest floor too much or leaving awkward stumps scattered around the place.

"Days like this I'm glad I've copied a few wind jutsu," Izuna comments, eyeing the nearest towering trunk. "Otherwise this really _would_ take forever."

Madara has to agree; despite its costs, the sharingan makes life so much easier in so many ways.

* * *

Tōka arrives with six vassals and fifteen armoured Senju just in time to see the last tree come down; the whole group waits on the far side of the river and stares as Izuna and Madara patiently let themselves be ordered around by two of the lower-ranking warriors, who examine the wood grain and point at various things Tobirama can't see but assumingly reference a genjutsu the two are weaving between them over Izuna and Madara, who then use wind jutsu –and Tobirama had no idea either of them even _knew_ wind jutsu but clearly they've copied a few off somebody– to neatly slice the massive trunk into more manageable sections.

The sections are then slid into those flattened seal bags, which looks utterly ridiculous yet _works_ despite going against everything Tobirama has ever learned about fūinjutsu. He _needs_ to arrange a get-together with Mito so she can visit the Uchiha and they can both talk to Kita about her sealing style.

Tōka crosses the river alone as the planks are still being packed away; Izuna ignores her but Madara turns and bows a polite greeting. "Senju Tōka-san."

"Uchiha Madara-sama," Tōka replies, bowing in turn. "How might the Senju assist in this building project?" She waves a hand, dropping a little of the formality. "I have no idea what you're doing or how, but I brought some of our vassals who are usually responsible for Senju housing and plenty of warriors to do the heavy lifting."

"Ishihara-sensei and Hiuchi-san are in charge of the actual construction process," Madara says, relaxing slightly in the face of Tōka's polite no-nonsense attitude. "I am here to keep order and provide chakra-intensive solutions to whatever issues may arise."

"Such as chopping a tree into planks in seconds?" Tōka inquires, tone faintly teasing.

Madara smiles slightly. "Indeed."

Tōka smiles back more sharply. "Well then, I shall add my authority to your own then." She turns. "Takashi, get over here; you can talk construction and layout with–?"

Madara points across the cleared area with the hilt of the sword he used to slice up the tree; the middle-aged vassal in dark green work-wear walks cautiously across the river, sliding slightly on the current, but makes it to the near bank without incident. "Ishihara-sensei is the elder in black," the Uchiha Outguard Head says pleasantly, chakra folded away under his skin and presence firmly dampened. "Hiuchi-san is wearing a falconer's coat."

"Thank you, Uchiha-sama," Takashi says, bowing before striding across the muddy ground with determination that only partly disguises his unease.

"Kamui!" Tobirama doesn't twitch as the Uchiha in question bounds right across the site in a single leap, landing on one knee beside her clan head.

"You bellowed, Madara-sama?"

"Kamui, this is Senju Tōka." The warrior rises to her feet and eyes Tobirama's cousin with cautious interest. "Tōka-san, my second cousin and senior lieutenant Uchiha Kamui. Maternal cousin," Madara specifies as Tobirama also takes a moment to compare their looks; there's a _slight_ resemblance, but then again Madara looks more or less like _all_ of the Uchiha he's seen so far. "Kamui, please liaise with Tōka-san and get her clansmen properly situated."

"Right away cousin," Kamui says, her sudden bright grin crinkling her tattoo, which runs right across the bridge of her nose and trails across both cheeks almost to her neck, the symbols like those Tobirama has seen on elderly temple artefacts and utterly incomprehensible. "How's Hikaku doing, Tōka-san?"

"Two of my younger cousins crashed his breakfast to ask him about fire jutsu," Tōka says amiably, waving the rest of the Senju party across the river; two of the vassals have to be carried. "When their mother tracked them down to scold them he was teaching them a basic elemental exercise."

"Yep, that's our Hikaku-taicho," Kamui agrees, shoulders dropping as she scratches the back of her neck. "Good with kids. Speaking of," she glances over the assembled Senju, all of whom are in their late teens and early twenties, "no pushing _our_ kids around; Madara-sama won't lay a finger on you but he'll turn a blind eye if I truss you up with wire and hang you upside-down in a tree to cool off."

"I heard nothing," Madara says dryly, sheathing his sword and pointedly turning his back before striding over to Izuna, who seems to be mid-discussion with Hiuchi-san and doing genjutsu again.

"Hey Tobi," Tōka says, walking up to him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders for a quick squeeze. "Good?"

"Tōka." He's missed her; three weeks with the Uchiha, barely a fortnight at home stressing over his own mistakes and his brother's bullheadedness, followed by most of a month away negotiating the treaty and now a further seven months before he will be able to see her daily again. "Well enough."

Tōka nods, hearing all the things he's not saying, then turns back to Kamui who is watching them with interest. "What now then?"

Kamui grins again, the expression bright and cheeky. "Now we dig ditches!"

"Ditches?" Someone at the back of the group complains.

Kamui's smile shifts minutely, becoming a threateningly cheerful leer. "Oh _yes_ ; foundation trenches, if you want to be specific. Can't expect a building to stay standing without foundations after all; even Madara-sama's going to be taking a turn with a mattock."

"Hozoana, shut up," Tōka says calmly as the complainer opens his mouth again. "Kamui-san, we are at your disposal; I believe Hashirama will be coming down around noon."

"Hopefully we'll have started actually laying foundations by then," Kamui says, her face tightening slightly. "This way; we're using the yellow cord as guides for where things need to be, but we usually do that with genjutsu so you may find yourself seeing things as we double-check dimensions and depth."

"The genjutsu are very helpful," Tobirama agrees before anybody can voice a protest. "Do you need anybody to go looking for foundation stones, Kamui-san?"

"We brought those with us Tobirama-san, and I'm sure we'll find more as we start digging," Kamui replies lightly. "People will need to take turns with the digging –not enough space otherwise– but we also need to move the clay out of the way so it can be trodden and stones removed for when we start the walls."

A very messy job that, requiring people to take off their sandals and work barefoot. "Where would I be most effective, Kamui-san?"

The warrior hums. "Digging, Tobirama-san, at least to begin with; this way."

Tobirama follows; so do Tōka and everyone else. Within ten minutes everybody wearing armour has taken it off –to keep it clean if nothing else– and Tobirama is trying to think up a way to modify a basic earth jutsu to physically remove a section of the ground rather than simply raising or lowering it. Spades and mattocks are all very well –and they are made of good steel so are surprisingly sharp– but a jutsu could do this in seconds.

Then again, that's not the point is it? Already he can sense the atmosphere changing as Senju and Uchiha alike settle into digging, huffing, swearing at rocks and tree roots, and getting covered in mud and slippery clay. This is as much to build solidarity as their clans' respective mission offices and it's _working_. Izuna is knee-deep in a trench section opposite him, Madara and Tōka are working on the foundations of the other building and all around them both clans are working side by side.

They have peace. It feels like his muscles pulling in unfamiliar ways and the lopsided weight of a loaded spade, smells like sweat, clay, and summer drizzle and sounds like heavy breathing and swearwords.

Unfamiliar, but not unpleasantly so.

* * *

Toshi and Azami both plead loudly to be allowed to eat lunch with their Papa –please Mama they've not eaten lunch with him for _ages_ – so Kita sighs, enlists a few warriors to give her girls piggybacks and joins the group taking bento down to the building site. It's raining a little, but not so much as to require an umbrella, so coats and hats will be more than enough to stay dry.

It doesn't technically _require_ this many people to carry lunch down the hill –even with the keep-hot seals on the bento boxes, they fit into umbrella bags just fine– but there are a lot of young teens with Madara today and everybody in the clan knows that there will be Senju there too and possibly Hashirama as well. So those adults who have finished their work for the morning –or who can justify a taking longer break– have offered to carry the lunches Tsune has arranged down to the building site, rather than leave the job to the thirteen-year-olds.

Kita therefore has with her Nagi and Toyoni carrying her girls, Iō wearing thick leather tabi rather than sandals so as not to get mud in the joints of his prosthetic foot, Tsune herself and Naka-Nimble, who is an older sister to Maru the exceedingly feline.

It's been a while since she's had time to chat with Tsune like this; of their old friendship group only they, Kiyoshi and Inemi are still alive and Inemi is currently very busy with her newborn daughter. Kita misses Misao, who was so much fun and had all kinds of stories about Izuna's childhood escapades, and Asami, who kept her secrets, cooked so well and died of complications after holding off two Senju squads all on her own while defending one of Yori's medical teams.

"So is it you seducing Tobirama or is it your husband?"

Kita should have expected Tsune to ask that; she's a terrible gossip. "Neither of us, Tsune; not everything is about sex. I think Madara's going to end up unofficially adopting him as an extra little brother."

"Izuna's going to _hate_ that," Tsune muses. "I can't wait."

Kita has no idea what's behind Tsune and Izuna's not-quite-feud and isn't going to ask. "Izuna has every right to be upset," she agrees mildly, "but he also needs to recognise that we were at _war_ and killing the other side is generally expected in war. However we are no longer at war, so are _not_ expected or required to do such things. Most people involved would in fact have preferred to _not_ kill the other side, but didn't really have much of a choice."

Tsune hums. "So what are you going to do if _Tobirama_ decides to seduce you or your husband?"

Kita rolls her eyes. "He won't. He's far too mannerly."

"But what if he _wants_ to, Kita-chan? Are you and your husband just going to leave him to pine and waste away?" Tsune wheedles. "That's hardly kind of you!"

Kita shoves her terrible friend. "Give over. He's mostly interested in my sealing; I doubt he'd look at me twice otherwise."

"In your sealing and that you turned into an eleven-metre wani to save his life," Tsune sing-songs, skipping out of reach. "Any man would be fascinated, nay _smitten_ with such a lady!"

"Are you saying you don't believe he might want to be friends?" Kita demands in faux-outrage. "That he cannot possibly see me as a fellow specialist and his interest can _only_ be sexual? Shame on you, Tsune Bone-digger!"

"Hey hey hey! I never said that!" The Uchiha believe firmly that every kind of love is equally worthy and precious; a spouse is no more or less cherished than a brother or a child or a close friend, and to do great or dire deeds for any one is equally accepted.

"You certainly implied it, your scurrilous gossip."

"Did you _have_ to bring up that old nickname, Kita-chan?" Tsune complains, letting the matter of Tobirama drop. "Everybody's going to be using it _again_ now."

"If you don't want people to use it then you should stop digging for skeletons," Kita retorts smartly.

"You're a terrible person, Kita-chan."

"Thank you, I try." The building site finally enters her sensing range; Hashirama isn't there yet, which is a relief. She's not entirely sure how she feels about him meeting her girls, even with her husband there to deflect his attention. A good number of other Senju are there though, if outnumbered by the Uchiha already present; Kita recognises Tōka from that initial parley and Chigi from the treaty proceedings, but the rest are unfamiliar, a few strongly shaded with earth or water but mainly just strong, controlled and refined.

There are a few who feel raw and untrained with considerably lower reserves; probably clan vassals, who have enough chakra to teach themselves basic control exercises since they are Senju in all but name, but are more focused on farming or other crafts to bother with refining their skills further.

Then the clearing comes into view through the trees, Tobirama's white shock of hair and Madara's messy spikes clearly visible despite both standing almost thigh-deep in the ground and Azami squeals.

"Toto! Toto!"

Her husband looks up and waves, a flash of white teeth betraying a smile. Toyoni speeds up, taking the last hundred metres in a blur and setting a wriggling Azami on the ground as Madara turns and holds out his hands. Seconds later her livelier little girl is being hugged; Kita arrives in the clearing seconds later and just in time to hear Azami's complaint.

"Toto, you're all _muddy_!"

"I'm digging a trench, flower," her husband points out warmly as Nagi sets Toshi on the ground too and she hurries closer as well.

"What's all the holes for, toto?" Toshi asks, looking right and left to take in the full scale of the earthworks. It looks to Kita like there's not much left to do; the full layout is dug so they must be making sure everything is cut to the same depth.

"We're building two houses, bean-sprout."

Azami frowns. "But houses don't have holes!"

Madara chuckles, climbing out of the mud and handing his spade off to a Senju standing nearby, who hops neatly into the knee-deep trench to continue digging. "We have to dig holes first, to lay foundations and put the pillars in, and then build up afterwards. Otherwise the house just falls over. Houses need roots just like trees do."

"Well it's time to break for lunch," Kita says clearly, "Although I'm not sure I brought enough for everybody."

Tōka straightens up, a smear of clay across her forehead. "Don't worry, Uchiha-sama, we brought our own food."

"Kita-san is fine, Tōka-san."

"Kita-san," Tōka agrees, laying her mattock down on the ground and ducking into the trench to remove a large rock. "And lunch is an excellent idea; I'm going to wash my hands in the river first though, I'm filthy."

There is a chorus of agreements and groans as everybody finishes scooping out the last few loads of clay to be moved off to one side, sets spades and mattocks off to the edge of the site in neat stacks then all head down to the river together, Uchiha and Senju all mixed up and commiserating about the state of their hands –or feet if they've been treading the clay– as they crouch on the bank or step out onto the current.

Madara doesn't bother; a wisp of fire chakra turns the clay to dust and he wipes it from his hands with a handkerchief embroidered with one of her sterilisation seals. Then he lifts Azami up for a kiss and to rub noses –she squeals delightedly– and sets her down so he can do the same with Toshi.

"How are my little girls?"

"We _missed_ you toto! You've been away for _ages_!" Azami complains, clinging to his leg. "You just got back and you went out _again_!"

"We're eating lunch with you, toto," Toshi says firmly, clinging to his shirt collar so he can't put her down. "Come sit with us and kaka."

"Of course," Madara agrees, leaning over Toshi's head to give Kita a kiss then scooping up Azami under his free arm and walking over to a nearby tree. "Here I am, eating lunch with my lovely ladies." He sits on an exposed root, settling Azami next to him and Toshi in his lap. Kita follows him, making a show of examining both girls' hands and cleaning them with her own seal-marked handkerchief before giving them their bento and then getting out the larger one she made for her husband.

"I have your lunch as well, Tobirama-san," she adds as people start to filter back from the river.

Azami bounces to her feet and dashes over to Tobirama, clutching her bento against her chest. "Bira-oji! Bira-oji, come eat lunch with us!"

"I was going to eat lunch with my cousin, Azami-chan," Tobirama says gently, drawing the girl's attention to the Senju woman. "Azami-chan, this is my cousin Tōka."

"She can come too," Azami says firmly, reaching up and grabbing hold of Tobirama's fingers. "Kaka made you lunch so you _have_ to sit with us."

"Oh I agree, we should _definitely_ sit with you," Tōka says earnestly, her chakra dancing with glee. "Just let me fetch my own lunch, Azami-chan; where are you sitting?"

"Over there Tōka-ba!" Azami says brightly, using Tobirama's hand to point with. "It's me an' Toshi an' kaka an' toto!"

"What about me, Azami-chan? Am I not invited?" Izuna asks, tone exaggeratedly hurt as he comes up behind Tobirama and Tōka.

Azami makes a face at him. "Of _course_ you're invited, Zu-ji. You're _always_ invited!"

"Off you go then," Tōka says cheerfully, giving Tobirama a gentle push. "Save me a seat, Bira."

Tobirama gives his cousin a _look_ but smiles at Azami and allows himself to be towed over to the tree Kita and Madara are sitting under with Toshi. "Toshiko, how are you today?" He asks, making eye-contact with the other girl as he sits on the ground.

"Good, Bira-oji," Toshi says seriously. "I missed my toto though. He was away for _ages_."

"I am sure he missed you very much as well," Tobirama says, accepting the bento box and chopsticks Kita hands him with a quick smile.

Toshi looks up, leaning back so as to make eye-contact with Madara. "Toto missed me?"

"I missed _both_ of you very much," Madara agrees seriously, looking from Toshi to Azami and back again. "You are my precious little girls and I was very sad to have to go away for so long."

"Why did you have to go at _all_ if you didn't want to?" Azami demands as Kita hands Izuna his bento and Tōka walks up and sits next to Tobirama, her own lunch in hand.

"I was arranging things so that we could be friends with Tobirama-san and Tōka-san and all the other people here who aren't Uchiha," Madara says patiently. "Now we're not going to fight anymore, so I will be home lots more as well."

Toshi's eyes go wide. "Toto's not going to be gone all the time anymore?"

"That's what I want, Toshi-ko," Madara says fondly, gently ruffling her hair. "Will you sit with Azami so I can eat my lunch, bean-sprout?"

Toshi nods firmly. "Yes." She gets up and hops over to sit next to Azami, who is sitting beside Tobirama, and unwraps her bento with the focused precision of someone for whom having a bento of their very own is still a novelty.

Her little girls will be four years old next month, so Kita trusts their dexterity. It is not like she has given them anything more complicated to eat than rice balls.

"Is Bira-oji staying with us all the time now?" Azami asks after swallowing her first mouthful of rice.

"He's staying until the New Year, just like your Hikaku-ji is staying with Tōka-san until New Year," Kita says, "so our clans can get to know each-other properly and learn to be friends."

Toshi frowns. "Kaka, you said Bira-oji has white hair 'cause his mother was Hatake, but nobody _else_ here has white hair."

"That's because Tobirama-san's father was a Senju, sweetheart, and we are making friends with the Senju clan."

"Oh." There is a pause. The quality of the silence makes it clear that various other Uchiha and Senju are listening in.

"Senju like killed Sue's kaasan and made her cry?" Azami demands hotly. "Senju like hurt Zu-ji and killed Toku-ba when she was really little and all of Kagutsuchi-nii's family? Senju like squished Iō-nii's foot so badly Yori-oba had to chop half his leg off?"

"Yes darling, those Senju," Kita agrees steadily. "Your Otōsan has killed lots of Senju's parents and siblings and made _them_ cry too. They have just as many reasons to be angry with us as we do with them, but we have all agreed that we don't want to keep on fighting just because we're angry."

"Like Bira-oji cutting off E-nee's hands to protect people but still wanting to be friends, toto?" Toshi asks, still frowning.

"Just like, bean-sprout," Madara confirms calmly. The entire building site is very, very quiet, tension searing the air.

"Well killing each-other is _stupid_ ," Azami declares, sniffing and firmly turning her attention back to her bento. "I'm glad you stopped so we can be friends, Bira-oji." She pats Tobirama's knee.

"I am very glad as well, Azami-chan," Tobirama agrees quietly as Tōka shoves a slice of omelette into her mouth to hide her smile and Izuna rolls his eyes, fondness warring with prickly wariness in his chakra.

Kita is glad too; this little revelation could have gone very badly but both her girls seem to have taken it in their stride. She's not missed everybody else settling down in response to Azami's declaration of friendship with Tobirama, their own conversations starting up again; hopefully her girls will get an opportunity to meet some of the Senju children Izuna mentioned in a few weeks or months time.

* * *

The foundations having been dug and everyone suitably fortified with a meal, it is time to move onto laying the foundations. Which, frustratingly, turns out to be more specialised than anticipated; the Senju seem not to be able to pick up a suitable rock from the pile based on its shape and the shape of the place it has to fit, needing to try several before hitting on a solution that works.

Madara isn't sure if it's simple unfamiliarity with the task to hand or something more profound. Yes, the sharingan helps with accuracy and memorisation but not _this_ much. All Uchiha are good at picking out shapes and calculating volumes even without their bloodline to help them along, but it seems that Senju can't just look at broken stone and see how to fit all the rocks together into piling. The Senju therefore get reallocated to filling the middle of the foundation wall with earth, pressing it down so that the rocks set against the edges of the trenches rattle slightly but do not actually move. However that does not take many people and there are only so many buckets, so quite a few Senju are doing their best to learn this new skill under Uchiha supervision.

It has to be admitted though that the _faces_ the Senju made when Rakko emptied a small mountain of rocks out of his flat umbrella bag was _hilarious._ The faces the rest of his warriors had made were funny too; Madara instated 'rock-gathering' as a standard punishment for unruly squads a good while back, well before his father died, and it's been a staple for the Outguard ever since.

The punishment is deceptively simple: the misbehaving squad has to fill an umbrella bag with stones suitable for building walls and foundations with. The catch is that umbrella bags have a volume limit not a weight limit, and that volume is equal to the inside of two storehouses. Even with all five squad members working together, finding that many suitable rocks is a long, slow and thankless task unless they find a recent landslide to pick clean, and generally takes several full days to complete. On the upside, the clan is now well-equipped for any and all wall-building that may arise.

His warriors _hate_ rock-picking. However there are messier and smellier tasks which when assigned may be met with a low mutter of, 'I would rather be rock picking.' Madara has threatened said complainers with arranging just that and seen the loudmouth hastily silenced by the rest of their squad; messy jobs may smell bad or involve river slime, but they're relatively short compared to picking rocks.

"More dirt over here!"

"Are there any rocks shaped kind of like this on your side of the pile?"

Madara eyes the half-built wall in his section of trench and turns to the stack beside him for suitable pieces. A lot of his warriors have resorted to genjutsu to _show_ the Senju they are working with what kind of rock they are specifically looking for this time, which seems to be having an effect; as the foundations rise the work appears to be going faster.

"Sensei, is this the right height for a cornerstone?" Ishihara-sensei walks around to take a look.

"Pack more dirt over the top first."

"Bira-oji, are these the right size?"

Azami and Toshi have stayed, being determined to help out, so Kita gave them both bamboo baskets and told them to collect smaller stones for fitting into small gaps. The girls are therefore carefully filling their baskets with pebbles and carrying them around the trenches for everybody to pick out handfuls of to slide into the smaller gaps.

"Perfect, thank you Toshiko." Tobirama is muddy to the waist, has clay smeared here and there on his face across his tattoos and his hands are dark with muck and rock dust, but he seems to be enjoying the challenge. He was one of the first Senju to grasp exactly what to look for in selecting an appropriate rock and laying them so the wall stands up rather than falling apart, so he has a wall section of his own to build unsupervised.

Well, unsupervised by adult warriors; Hideo and Take are working to one side of him and occasionally glance at his work, as do Toshi and Azami whenever they come around with fresh pebbles.

It's going pretty well. Which is of course when Tobirama straightens up like he's been poked with a stick, all the other Senju tensing and turning towards him.

"Anija's on his way," Tobirama says shortly, causing all the Senju to relax and all the Uchiha to tense and hunker down, squad leaders glancing around for their subordinates and the younger teenagers sidling closer to whichever adults they are working beside.

Some of those adults are Senju; it's easy to see the confusion on their faces melting into realisation as all these formerly-enemy shinobi finally grasp what a terror their Clan Head is to everybody else on the continent.

Madara gets to his feet and catches Nagi's eye; the warrior leaves his position overseeing the rock pile so nobody injures themselves and takes over the half-finished section of wall. Madara stretches and walks around to the roadway between the buildings, clearly visible from the river so that Hashirama will see him first. The general easing of tension as he makes a target of himself is palpable and makes Tōka frown ever so slightly as she walks past with an armful of rocks.

"That bad?" she asks quietly.

"It is one thing to know you may die on a battlefield," Madara replies equally quietly, "and quite another to know you may be carried home, broken and in agonising pain, to die slowly for weeks on end, to the point that you may lose enough of yourself to beg your own children to slit your throat."

Her throat muscles ripple. "It's strange, isn't it?" She muses with a forced chuckle. "He's always been my idiot cousin. Even now, he's my overpowered idiot cousin. I've never really considered what that looks like from the outside."

"A careless opponent is more frightening than a deadly one, Tōka-san," Madara says steadily, his eyes on the trees. "All my warriors knew that meeting Tobirama meant they were likely going to die, but that is a hazard of war. He is feared for his strength and brilliance but he is not truly hated. Hashirama however," Madara shakes his head. "An enemy who leaves you in the mud and can't even be bothered to slit your throat after breaking your arms and back in a split-second? That is an enemy you _hate_ , because they do not hide the fact that your strength is meaningless to them. Tobirama at least recognises the threat my men pose and acts accordingly."

"I've not seen it that way before," Tōka muses. "And yes, I see your point." She turns. "Here he comes."

Madara turns as well, setting his feet steady and folding his arms. Small hands tug on his trousers. "Toto?"

It's Toshi. "Yes, sweetheart?" He asks, swiftly burying his apprehension.

"What's wrong?" His little girl is _far_ too perceptive and possibly as much a sensor as Kita is. Madara picks her up and settles her on his hip, keeping his right arm free so he can turn and deflect Hashirama if necessary.

"You know I'm Outguard Head because I'm stronger than everybody else in the Outguard, bean-sprout?"

" _Yes_ , toto," Toshi says, tone a little huffy like it's _obvious_ that of _course_ her daddy is better than everybody else's brothers and fathers.

"Well the leader of the Senju is the strongest in their clan and even stronger than me. So everybody's a bit nervous about him coming here, even though we're at peace now."

Toshi contemplates this, but whatever answer she might have had never gets spoken because Hashirama speeds into view on the far bank, leaps across the river and comes to a halt barely a metre away. "Madara! It's so good to see you!"

"Hashirama," Madara says, aware of Toshi burying her face in the side of his neck and covering her exposed ear with one hand. "Come to join in?"

"Of course! I want to help build our village too!" His friend grins. "And who's this? Is this your daughter Madara?"

"Toshi-ko?" Madara asks quietly, dropping his eyes. Face still buried in his shirt, Toshi shakes her head. "My little girl is feeling shy, so no introductions as yet," he says to Hashirama.

A different small hand grips his sash. "Loud," Azami says disapprovingly from mid-thigh.

"Hello, I'm Hashirama!" Hashirama says brightly. "Tobirama's my brother, he told me about you!"

Azami frowns. "Kashima-oji," she says flatly; Tōka snorts, shoulders curling over and shaking with suppressed delight. 'Kashima' means 'noisy,' specifically the inconsiderate kind of noisy that involves disrupting the conversations of the people around you. "You don't look like Bira-oji."

Hashirama chuckles. "Ah, no I don't," he agrees candidly. "Tobirama looks more like our mother than I do."

'Our' mother? Madara frowns. Hashirama's mother was some Senju woman, not Hatake Kikuno. Then again, the Hatake definitely _raised_ him, what with her marrying Senju Butsuma barely half a year after his first wife's passing…

Also, now that Hashirama mentions it, Madara can see his friend _has_ grown into the spitting image of Senju Butsuma. The main difference is the length and colour of Hashirama's hair and that Butsuma smiled completely differently. Their eyes are the same though; Madara can say that with confidence.

"I like Bira-oji better," Azami decides, turning away from Hashirama as he slumps in exaggerated misery. "Toto, can I pick flowers?"

On his shoulder Toshi perks up. "Toto?"

"You may pick flowers," Madara agrees, "if you can find an Uchiha warrior who is willing to go with you."

"Why not a Senju, toto?" Toshi asks.

"Because the Senju don't know you very well yet, so can't be on guard against the kind of messes you both like to get into," Madara says dryly.

"We could take Bira-oji," Azami points out.

"Tobirama-san is high-ranking so has to be here to help supervise everybody else, Azami-chan."

Azami huffs, but accepts this. "Can we take Saru-nee?"

"Ask and find out," Madara says, setting Toshi down so she can grab her sister's hand. Both twins dash off in search of Saru, who will probably be grateful for the chance to put a bit of distance between herself and Hashirama, considering what happened to _her_ sister.

"Twins, Madara?" Hashirama's stopped moping and is now smiling fondly. "Tobi mentioned you had daughters, but I didn't realise they were the same age!"

"They're good girls," Madara replies, not wanting to go into the frankly very personal circumstances of how the twins ended up in his and Kita's care. They consider him their father and he treats them as his own, so even though they aren't his by blood it's enough. "Let me show you what we've done so far."

"Of course!" His friend beams. "You've got so much done already! I wanted to be here earlier but Tobi was badgering me about paperwork and there was a lot needing my approval after being away for the treaty proceedings. But I'm here now!" He looks around. "So what are you planning?"

Madara turns with Hashirama mirroring him and they set off on a wide circuit of the building site so they're not underfoot. "We're building the offices as standard two-storey town houses," he explains, "so that what would normally be a shop front or workspace can be a desk for messengers and clients to make requests to a scribe and have an office in what would usually be residential space, for those clansmen responsible for checking routes and allegiances and determining how the mission request translates in terms of skill requirements and timescale. There'll also be a reception room for discussing more complex contracts with clients and a small kitchen, but we're holding off on the kitchen and toilet for the time being as we need to have the sewers and water pipes laid for that and that's not today's job." Sorting out water management is in fact something Madara's expecting to take all summer and half the autumn; there's a lot to set up there.

"Why two storeys, Madara?" Hashirama asks curiously. "I mean, those all sound like ground floor things."

"It's always good to have room to expand," Madara replies, "and it provides extra office space for when mission requests are numerous enough to require extra staff as well as somewhere for messengers to sleep. It's hospitable to offer them a place overnight if you know you'll have an answer for them to take back in the morning." Plus it is space for warriors to have downtime if they need to be on call. The offices don't technically _need_ the garden at the back or the storehouse either, but will have both because the little walled garden will be a good place to discreetly receive crow-brought messages and the storehouse will be somewhere secure to keep weapons, building materials, spare clothing and other necessities outside clan grounds.

Hashirama nods; Madara wonders who it is in the Senju clan who usually sees to the disposition of visiting messengers; probably Tobirama. He seems to be responsible for just about everything else, considering how much of the treaty he negotiated on his brother's behalf. "You've already got more of the village than this in mind, haven't you?" his friend says with a smile. "I can see it Madara; you're already planning for more houses on this street and building the offices like this means newcomers will build their houses and shops to match, because you're using a common machiya style."

Madara grins. "Well if we want people to follow our town plan we do have to make it easy, don't we?" He points out lightly as they turn around the far corner of the building site and set out along the edge farthest from the river. The Uchiha on this side are all now working with their backs to the river as well, keeping the _Shinobi no Kami_ where they can see him.

That name is not a compliment; shinobi are killers and thieves, the kanji used to mark their profession denoting suffering and enduring through it. Hashirama as the embodiment of endurance and suffering is oddly apt: no matter how supportive, he is certainly not a _kind_ god. Not at all.

Madara is not surprised by his warriors' caution. What _does_ surprise him is how many of the younger teenagers are willing to duck behind Senju when Hashirama glances their way.

"So what is everybody doing now and how can I help?" Hashirama demands eagerly.

"Right now we're finishing up laying the foundations, after which we'll put in the support pillars, slot together the building frame and then start working on the walls," Madara explains. "The outside walls will be clay, with thin branches acting as a core so that they hold together as they dry. Then once the ground floor is done we'll have to put the roof on before putting in the upper floor and finishing the walls, but honestly I don't think we'll get that far today. Well we might get the roof beams up on one building, but clay walls are tricky and you can only build so high before they need to be left to dry." Which takes a while, but the core of the wall still being damp means no weaknesses in the finished structure, so it's only the outside that really needs to have cured.

They've walked far enough around to be level with Tobirama, who has two teenagers trying to keep him between them and his brother. It would almost be funny if it wasn't so sad how utterly terrified of his friend his younger clansmen are.

Hashirama however seems determined to ignore the low-level fear radiating off the fourteen- and fifteen-year-old keeping Tobirama supplied with rocks. "Tobi! Can I join you?"

Tobirama stands up and glares at his brother, setting his hands on his hips and incidentally widening his silhouette to provide the teenagers more room to hide. " _No_ , anija; there's not enough space and you haven't the first idea how to lay burdock piling. Go help sort rocks by size or else offer to hold pillars for Ishihara-sensei; he's starting to lay foundation stones and could use somebody to keep the pillars vertical while the holes get packed with clay." The white-haired Senju waves a grey-dusted hand across the site to where Ishihara-sensei is indeed setting the first foundation stone, showing that it is almost time to start raising the pillars that will hold the house up.

"Let's leave the precision work to Tobirama since he has it well in hand and go do some heavy lifting, shall we?" Madara agrees; rock-sorting would be no less helpful –more so in fact– but this is Hashirama's first proper house and he'll want to do something that looks and feels like tangible progress. "Nagi, where's the umbrella bag Naka-Ninefingers sent down with the bento?"

"Umbrella bag?" Hashirama repeats curiously as Nagi takes off the bag he's wearing and passes it along to Hideo, who hands it to Tobirama to pass to Madara. "Madara, that bag's empty."

"Fūinjutsu, anija," Tobirama says shortly. "Go _away_ , you're in the way of me finishing this." He is, interestingly enough, still standing between his brother and the two Uchiha teenagers. His posture shifted as Hashirama stepped back earlier, and again when he moved closer to Madara to look at the bag, but the overall _tone_ of his stance is one of defensive belligerence.

Madara had not thought Tobirama was _that_ attached to either Hideo or Take, but it doesn't quite look deliberate. Tobirama's facial expression is pure younger-sibling-annoyance; it's only his body language that is protective.

"We're going, we're going!" Hashirama assures his brother with a grin, taking several exaggerated steps back and raising his hands in the air. Tobirama subsides slightly, but there's still general feel of defensive bristling around the edges of his chakra. Madara sets the mystery aside for another day and turns to lead his friend over to Ishihara-sensei.

"Ah, I see you've brought me another strong pair of arms," the armour-smith says blandly, utterly fearless. "Pass me a post, Madara-kun; time is passing and I'd like to have the walls up _today_ so I don't need to come down here and supervise again tomorrow. I do actually work for a living."

Unlike Madara, being the implication. "Yes, sensei," he agrees mildly, putting his hand in the bag and focusing on what he wants as he releases a thread of chakra. A post top emerges from the seal; he pulls it out, enjoying the surprise and childish delight that spreads across his friend's face as the size of the post becomes evident.

"That's so clever!" Hashirama gushes as he accepts the post, balances it on his shoulder then spins it and sets one end down over the laid cornerstone. "How does that work? The only storage seals I've seen have a stored object come out all at once!"

"Move the post this way, Hashirama-san."

"Of course, sensei; like this?" Hashirama obligingly shifts the post so it sits squarely on the stone.

"Now hold it still and keep it vertical," Ishihara-sensei instructs him.

"I don't know how it works," Madara admits as a few Senju approach with buckets of clay and baskets of rocks to pack around the post, handing off a new post to Atago –who thankfully looks nothing like the long-dead Atago whose demise awoke Madara's Mangekyō– so Ishihara-sensei can set that one in as well. "It's fūinjutsu, Kita made it and it works."

"Mito always says sealing is about the shape of the idea," Hashirama says, forehead furrowing in a way that suggests he's trying to unravel the concept and rather enjoying the challenge. "If you can fully delineate the concept, the seal will work."

"It's a bag," Madara repeats a little helplessly. "You have to open it to get things out and you have to know what you want, but so long as you _do_ know what you want, you can open it and get that thing out of it. Or put something in." He doesn't know what the precise mechanics are and he suspects Kita doesn't either; she just found a loophole in the universe and made it work for her.

"Why call it an _umbrella_ bag though, Madara?"

"The seal looks like a furled umbrella with a parrot's head for a handle."

Hashirama's utter confusion at this explanation makes Madara smile. It's nice to see that Kita's fūinjutsu is no less incomprehensible to his friend than it is to him.


	6. Chapter 6

It's a little startling actually, how quickly the mission offices go up; by the time the sun is getting low in the sky and everybody except Hashirama is starting to tire, both buildings have fully shingled roofs, the beams of the upper floor have been put in and the outer walls are taller than a man's height. The clay is packed around thin branches reaching between the regular pillars along the sides, so it doesn't just crack and crumble off, and for all that he is sore, filthy and ravenous Tobirama is prouder of his efforts than he's ever been of anything he's achieved before today.

This morning there was nothing here at all and now there are two mostly-built houses. The walls for the upper storeys won't even take until noon tomorrow to finish if they all work together. He, with his own hands, has almost _built_ a _house_. It's exciting, especially with what it represents for the future.

He's not the only person feeling buoyed up by their achievements; there a giddy joy in everyone's chakra, the Senju more than the Uchiha. The Uchiha have a more grounded sense of satisfaction and contentment about them, doubtless due to having done this kind of thing before. The other clan doesn't have vassals or Hashirama to build for them, so all of them are more experienced in this kind of thing than the Senju; perhaps not the intricacies and architectural rules, but certainly the basic requirements and steps.

"Tomorrow we'll finish the walls," Madara says aloud, "and then it's just furnishings left." He nods at Hashirama. "Do with the inside of the western building as you like, and the Uchiha will do the same with the eastern building."

"What _are_ the Uchiha going to put in their mission office?" Tōka asks curiously; a good question, since leaving the furnishing of their own building to Hashirama is definitely a bad idea. His brother might just grow the fittings inside the newly-constructed shell and Tobirama feels that such a thing would cheapen their efforts in building it in the first place.

Madara looks a little baffled by the question. "Well the front's going to keep the earth floor," he replies, "but we'll put a wood floor in behind and a few tatami rooms with fusuma for offices and reception space. Leave a space behind for the kitchen and wash rooms since we've got to sort out piped water and sewage lines before we build those, but plant a garden and put a storehouse in the back."

"Why would a mission office need a storehouse?" Hashirama asks curiously; Madara's confusion flattens into annoyance, which Tobirama understands perfectly. There does have to be room to store things and there's limited space in the offices themselves.

"Paper. Ink. Spare furniture. Futons. Changes of clothes. Tea. Secure records," he rattles off. "Anything you want to be able to lock up at night and not worry about animals getting into; it's not like people are going to be sleeping here regularly."

The Senju don't really do traditional rooms, but a separate raised floor back from the entrance will reduce the need for sweeping and having a wall to separate the reception space from the offices behind is definitely a good idea. For privacy and keeping their sources and intentions secret from those who would hire them, as well as providing room for customers to discuss pricing or requirements out of the public eye.

"Windows," Izuna says abruptly.

"Yes," Madara agrees, turning to nod at his brother before glancing back at Tōka. "You need to decide what kinds of windows you want on the upper storey. Traditional birdcage slits, square grating or just open space; make sure to decide _before_ tomorrow morning."

"What kind of windows do the Uchiha use?" Tōka asks.

"In this kind of building?" Izuna shrugs. "Partial bars I think: a big enough gap to jump out into the road in case of a fire or attack, but with a solid shutter on the inside and regular blinds inside the rest of the bars. At the front, that is; at the back we're leaving it open for shōji to access the flooring over the back porch. That's why the upper roof goes out that far, to shade the veranda."

Tobirama suspects the Uchiha also have plans for a roost for their crow summons, but doesn't say so. The Senju have messenger summons as well and an outpost this far from clan grounds certainly needs accommodation for them.

"I'm sure Takashi will have drawn up a suitable plan by then," Tōka says easily, "and that our clan head will be patient enough to let us do the woodwork ourselves. _Won't_ you, Hashi?"

Hashirama grins. "But it would be so much quicker, Tōka-nee!"

Tōka swipes at Hashirama's head; he ducks. "Hopelessly impatient," she laments, shaking her head with a smile. "If you want this to go faster then start working out how much money the clan can afford to pledge to support the Uchiha in making and buying water pipes, so we can get started on the plumbing now we're not going to spend so much on weapons and medical supplies."

Hashirama is not exactly _bad_ at budgeting; he just gets bored easily and then doesn't finish. Given a specific and focused task that _interests_ him though… Tobirama's impressed, he wouldn't have thought of this as a way to get his brother to take a proper look at the clan's finances in light of the treaty and reassign funds accordingly. "Yes anija, and if you could send over my scrolls on water tables and geology, so I can start planning reservoirs and wells?" He wants those references to hand and the information fresh in his mind so that matters can be arranged swiftly; the sooner the plumbing and pipes are in place, the sooner the mission offices will be truly completed rather than just serviceable.

"Of course Tobi! We want that sorted out as soon as possible," Hashirama agrees seriously. "I'll have Tōka bring your scrolls over tomorrow morning and get right to work on the finances."

When his brother says something in that tone of voice it really _will_ get done, which is a relief. Even though everybody else is probably going to hate him for squeezing their budgets too far in the name of peace, so there will be all kinds of arguments before things settle down properly. Then again, it _will_ help keep Hashirama distracted from mission vetting, which is the important part; his brother is a terrible bleeding heart and doesn't seem to realise that doing missions at lower prices or for free devalues the Senju clan's skills and labour.

"Oh, and Madara: now we're at peace Mito and I are trying for another child!"

Madara nods. "Good luck then." He smiles, softer than Tobirama has seen outside the Uchiha clan grounds. "My wife is already expecting."

"Hopefully our children will be able to grow up together then!" Hashirama chirps.

Madara shrugs. "Gods be willing; pregnancy is no less risky than the battlefield for women and many have died of it." He's less at ease with the idea than he's acting, going by how tightly contained his chakra is. Then again, he and his wife have twin girls already; Tobirama isn't a fully trained medic but he knows that those are riskier for both the mother and the unborn children. Twins _again_ is against the odds, but Tobirama can understand why Madara would be so stressed when his wife's first pregnancy was likely exceedingly fraught. The age of the twins suggests that they were born before Tajima died, if not by much, and that would imply... maybe Madara's nerves are because he missed so much of Kita's last pregnancy? Or that he did not have the time or space to really consider the risks then?

"If Kita-chan starts having problems, please write, Madara," Hashirama requests firmly. "The Senju clan's medics are very experienced and I would hate for you to suffer such a loss when it could be prevented. Two of my aunts are medics and they are extremely skilled."

Madara nods. "Thank you Hashirama, I will consider it. Now I must go." He glances over to where Nagi and Iō –the teenager with the false foot, which is currently concealed by his jika-tabi– are holding a sleeping toddler apiece. "My girls need to wash and eat before they can be put to bed."

"Of course." Hashirama beams again. "See you later!"

With that the two clans go their separate ways, Tobirama reminding himself to fall in beside Izuna rather than behind his brother. Today has been shockingly productive; peace is suddenly five times more tangible than it was yesterday.

* * *

The clan has been planning a celebration to mark the treaty proclamation ever since Madara wrote to Izuna telling him of the signing, but such things take time and it was important to get the mission offices built and furnished first. However now that is taken care of, floors and fusuma and tatami, storehouse and shelves, blinds and desks and tea kettles and all, so tomorrow morning only the most necessary work will be done, there will be paper streamers and lanterns hanging between buildings and quick, easily-prepared fried food available all day, cooked by a rotation of volunteers. There will also be sweets, games, lots of music and dancing, and the children are even putting on a few plays; Madara's heard rumours of fire-shaping exhibitions in the evening as well, which he's hoping is true. He's not seen fire-shaping in almost six years and it's not something he's ever been good at; he doesn't have the fine control.

Which is why he's said he'd going to fly his goshawks and new hawk-eagle in the morning, to show them off and get Tenka used to her new home. Maybe see if any clan children fall in love with the birds like he did and find Hiuchi an apprentice. The clan is well-off enough now that the birds do not have to earn their keep so stringently, so he has hope that one of the clan's many children will feel comfortable dedicating their life to caring for his ladies. There's bound to be at least some interest; all three of his raptors are fierce, beautiful and fascinating.

It will be a day of fun and celebration and there is going to be a lot of alcohol as well, although Madara suspects most of the adults are going to save that until after the younger children have been put to bed in the evening. As it is he's looking forward to spending the whole day with Benten, Azami and Toshi and getting to just be Madara for most of it, rather than the Outguard Head. He's also looking forward to seeing his wife walking around in the yukata he's going to give her, a lovely butterfly print he saw in an advertising leaflet somebody brought back from Kōgei-gai. Sending a squad to do his shopping is possibly an abuse of power, but it's not like he could have gone _personally_ when he had so much else to do in the run-up to the treaty and Mineo had been delighted at the opportunity; her squad reportedly completed shopping errands for two dozen other warriors as well, so it was a good use of their time, and the delivery they were nominally performing led to three other related missions in the area.

Rolling his shoulders, Madara picks up the mission scrolls he was vetting and gets to his feet, putting the paperwork away in the rack. Mission distribution now has an additional step, but the delay will be worth it. In future rather than missions coming to him and being examined here in the clan compound by his intelligencers then arriving in his hands to be either approved and assigned or turned down, the requests will go directly to the mission office in the village-to-be and his intelligencers will do that work there. Which is bound to be frustrating to begin with, but at least the umbrella bags let people move large volumes of paperwork very easily.

Then, once checked over and it has been determined that there is not a conflicting Senju mission commissioned, the request will come into his hands for approval and assignment. Madara suspects that in time, if more clans _do_ join their village, they _will_ eventually have to centralise mission vetting and approval, but he's in no hurry for that. These are _his_ warriors, _his_ clansmen, and he will not entrust them to other hands. Especially not hands that do not belong to an Uchiha warrior who uses their sharingan to memorise all the regular reports of unrest, upheaval and political intrigue that come in from around the Elemental Nations; many times it has been only those indelible memories which have prompted him to send a double squad or decline a mission despite the vetting process showing nothing out of the ordinary, and later reports from the area in question have revealed the wisdom of those choices.

Stepping out of his office and closing the shōji, Madara walks into the dining room and pauses at the sight of Tobirama sprawled on his back, balancing a ball of spinning water on one finger as Toshi sits on his chest and pokes the water ball.

"Hi toto!" Toshi says brightly, barely glancing up. "Look toto! Bira-oji can do fun things with water!"

'Bira-oji' can also drown people by dragging the water from their blood into their lungs, but this is not the place for that discussion. "So I see," Madara agrees. "I hope you're not squashing Tobirama-san, bean-sprout."

Toshi looks down, all concern. "Am I squashing you, Bira-oji?" She asks earnestly.

"Not at all; you're much less heavy than my anija," Tobirama replies with a small smile.

Toshi frowns, poking the water ball with rather more force than is really necessary. "Bira-oji, is Kashima-oji _really_ your brother?"

"Yes, he is," Tobirama agrees, lips twitching at the nickname the girls have assigned to Hashirama. Madara agrees that it's hilarious and he rather hopes it catches on with the other children; maybe then Hashirama will get a hint.

"But you don't look _anything_ like him!"

"I look like our mother, Toshiko. Anija looks like our father."

Toshi looks up at Madara. "Toto?"

Madara hums. "I never saw Hatake Kikuno –that's Tobirama-san's mother's name, Toshi-chan– but Tobirama-san does look very much like the other Hatake I _have_ seen, save for how solidly built he is; Hatake are generally leaner, more like your Zu-ji. So he probably _does_ look a lot like his mother. Hashirama-san on the other hand is very definitely the image of his father Senju Butsuma, save for his hair colour and the shape of his mouth." He smiles. "And you may not have noticed, Toshi-chan, but Tobirama-san and his brother have the same nose and the same ears."

Toshi sits back on Tobirama's ribcage then bends down over his face, tracing the line of his nose and then leaning sideways to eye his ears. Tobirama looks no less taken aback by the observation; had he not noticed? Then again, it's unlikely Tobirama's really looked at himself in a mirror recently and people tend not to scrutinise their own clones overmuch.

"Really, toto?"

"Really, bean-sprout. You can check yourself next time you see them both together."

"I will," Toshi decides, nodding as she sits back up again; Tobirama still has the ball of water balanced on one finger, although it is not spinning anymore. "Bira-oji, are you coming to the festival tomorrow?"

"Festival?" Tobirama asks.

Toshi bounces eagerly. "Yes! Because we're not fighting anymore! There's going to be dango and yakitori and yakisoba and okonomiyaki and taiyaki and inarizushi! And toto's going to show his hawks and kaka's gonna play music and there's gonna be singing and E-nee's organising some theatre and Zu-ji's promised to do fire tricks!" She pauses. "Have you got a yukata, Bira-oji? Grown-ups have to wear yukata at festivals."

"I do indeed have a festival yukata, Toshiko," Tobirama assures her. "It has koi on it." As opposed to his regular bath-house yukata, which is old and darned with a faded bamboo print.

Toshi bounces again, eyes wide and delighted. "Can I see, Bira-oji?"

"I don't see why not," Tobirama hedges, glancing at Madara; Madara can't see why not either. The blurring seals on Tobirama's room are one-way, limiting his perception of others while he is inside but not concealing him or anybody else in the room from other people in the hall. If he had ill-intentions –which Madara does not believe in the slightest– Kita would know the _instant_ anything hurt Toshi and then the clan hall would be overflowing with enraged wani. Which Tobirama also knows very well.

Even if Tobirama _did_ have ill intentions, Madara knows the man isn't stupid or suicidal.

"If you want him to show you, then you need to get off him, Toshi-chan," he says fondly. "Remember that it will be dinnertime soon, so be sure to leave time to wash in."

"Yes toto!" Toshi slides off Tobirama's chest and grabs the hand not balancing a sphere of water, tugging. "Come on, Bira-oji, I want to see your koi yukata!"

Tobirama gets to his feet, still carrying the water ball, and allows himself to be dragged through the open fusuma past Madara, then balances the water ball on the back of his wrist –Toshi giggles delightedly– so as to open the shōji of his guest room. Leaving them to it, Madara heads through the dining room towards the kitchen to see if there's anything he can help his wife with.

She's unlikely to want him interfering with the food, but he can get out plates and trays. Then again, she may want him to track down Azami; his more adventurous little girl doesn't seem to be in the house and may well need finding so as not to delay dinner.

* * *

The Uchiha festival is loud. What really makes it hard for Tobirama isn't the noise though; it's that every single clan-member is outside of their veiling seals, all packed in around him with their chakra bubbling with giddy feelings. Joy, delight, amusement, excitement, mischief, relief, love; all and more are represented and the combination is headier than anything he's ever felt before. The music and singing coming from six directions at once, the children dressed up and running around with faces painted like noh masks, the smell of frying food and the myriad overlapping conversations simply add to the confusion.

So far he's been dragged to a small puppet stage where E-san is performing little scenes using produce with paper eyes stuck on them and singing as she makes the vegetables bounce using chakra strings. The songs are utterly ridiculous: one was about the cucumber dressed in a scrap of towel having lost his comb and another was about a trio of piratical vegetables that did not, in fact, engage in piracy. Or really do much of anything.

That the songs are unsettlingly catchy is beside the point; Tobirama has heard at least two dozen different people whistling along to the song about the comb so far and realised shortly after hearing it the first time that Kita hums the same tune to herself sometimes when tidying up after her daughters. It must be a clan favourite; it's so _inane_ though. Then again, children's songs –the ones sung by children playing together– frequently are. Or else completely inappropriate. Occasionally both.

Not that some of the songs being sung by the adults are exactly _better_ ; there's nothing outright obscene –although that will likely change once evening sets in and the younger children are put to bed– but some of what he's heard is _incredibly_ suggestive. That song about 'taking a chance' on the singer if you're 'all alone'? Or the one about 'not wasting emotion' and 'not sharing devotion'? He's never heard either song before, so they must be clan-specific, probably outright written by Uchiha and possibly recently. The rhythm of both songs is similar while being quite unlike anything he's heard before and quite a few people –adults as well as children– are swaying to the beat.

Even the mournful songs are suggestive; it seems to be an Uchiha theme, to underpin everything with passion and strong feelings. Of course not everything is unfamiliar –there are all kinds of songs Tobirama has heard in civilian tea houses and in the streets of various small towns– but the proportion of new songs is fairly hefty. Evidently the Uchiha keep their own music to themselves.

Well that or somebody in the clan has a talent for composition, which is equally possible. Tobirama accepts a fried fish –all the food is free– and walks around a corner into another musical performance. This one is more explicitly comedic, if still suggestive; it's sung by a man to a younger woman and the main line of the chorus is 'does your mother know that you're here,' implying that she is too young to be at such an event and _far_ too young to be propositioning –even by implication– a man of his years.

The girl is blushing and smiling and the man is grinning widely, as are the rest of the audience; Tobirama estimates her to be possibly fifteen and the singer to be twenty, so the song is probably intended to gently tease. He stays until the end, after which there's a round of applause and the girl moves on; evidently there's no _actual_ relationship there beyond familial. The singer's next song is a more familiar comic piece about a tanuki with a sack of jewels, involving lots of euphemisms that mostly go right over the heads of the giggling children present.

Not being particularly interested in all the various testicle-related jokes, Tobirama finishes his fish and moves on; the sun is getting low in the sky and he knows there's going to be a range of fire-related exhibitions by the river as the light goes. Not having ever seen such a thing done before, he's rather interested in what his hosts have in mind.

* * *

Kita is so, so happy. Everybody around her is happy too, their chakra buzzing with it, which feels better than any amount of sake ever has. She's wearing the lovely new yukata her husband gave her this morning, she's eaten so much fried food she's probably going to feel very queasy tomorrow, she's watched her little girls have so much fun before they needed to be put to bed and all around her the clan –her _family_ – is celebrating the end of the war with the Senju.

Madara did a falconry display in the morning, there's been singing and genjutsu exhibitions and now it's getting dark people are showing off their fire manipulation skills. There's also been all manner of festival games for the children to play with sweets as prizes, various storytelling competitions and the music has not stopped once.

Quite a lot of the music is rather anachronistic, but Kits regrets nothing there. After becoming reasonably capable with the koto she started trying to translate and transcribe various songs she remembers from Before, some of which have definitely caught on. The little vegetable puppet show E set up is a relic of Kita's childhood, first created to entertain her little sisters, but has since spread to become a clan staple and many new songs have been created. Although it seems unlikely that any will ever be as ubiquitous as Kuri the Cucumber's song about his missing comb.

Wandering through the clan compound in the twilight and hearing snatches of half a dozen different Abba songs is never going to stop making her smile though. Everybody assumes she wrote them –and her friends have teased her about that, assuming the words come from her depth of feeling for Madara– but their popularity comes from the simplicity of the tunes and the catchiness of the translations.

Of course, it's not just Abba she's worked out how to play and translated the lyrics of; she's done many more than that, generally when a specific song afflicts her brain for days on end and she has to externalise it in order to get anything else done. However cultural differences mean that a _lot_ of those songs are considered inappropriate for mixed company, even within the clan, so she hasn't actually shared the words for about half the tunes she's worked out. Despite having meticulously written those words down and played with the translations until they work with the beat.

Cultural differences also mean some of her remembered favourites are indecipherable nonsense –alas for Bohemian Rhapsody– so she's had to let those go. Reluctantly; she did try to translate some Leonard Cohen, but the results were never remotely satisfying so she had to give up.

The songs that _do_ work are mostly pop songs and storytelling ballads, which the clan's other musicians have picked up and made their own. The many love songs in particular; there's not an Uchiha in existence who doesn't enjoy a good love song, be it hopeful, mournful, triumphant, frustrated, joyful or tragic. That she's 'written' almost fifty of those is probably going to have a significant effect on how she's portrayed in the clan records, but Kita doesn't really care about that. Yes, she adores her husband and he adores her back, and if that is her legacy then she will be satisfied. It's not a bad thing.

Drums and cheering catch her attention; Kita slips through an alley towards the lanterns at the far end, sliding past familiar faces –Jakuchi and Rakko, two of her husband's senior warriors– to get a better view. There's an open space surrounded by people clapping, four drummers and a trio of other musicians off to one side –shakuhachi, kokyū and biwa, not a remotely traditional combination– playing a riff on an Abba tune; which tune isn't immediately clear due to how loud the clapping is. In the middle of the space Izuna and E are dancing, the kind of dance which is more of a playful spar than anything formal, tugging each-other this way and that, leaping high, sliding low, bouncing from side to side and kicking out while barely connecting. Both have their sharingan active and neither is armed, so there's absolutely zero risk involved despite the added difficulty of doing this in yukata and geta.

The rule to this kind of 'dance' is you have to stay on the beat and it's a team effort not a competition, which is made easier by the sharingan letting the dancers coordinate. It's also very definitely a paired dance, be it spouses or lovers or siblings or close friends; it's about showing off how well you and your partner work together. Kita knows some Outguard squads dance all together to improve their coordination and teamwork, which is massively harder than just two people. Five dancers is a much more challenging number to work with than two.

The shakuhachi plays a riff and Kita suddenly realises what the tune is; ah well, no wonder she had trouble, it's not one she's heard anybody else play before. She knew Inemi had copied the words and musical notation, but hadn't realised it had gone any further than that. 'Send me company after midnight' is right out there on the limits of acceptable risqué, the sexual implications being rather explicit and the romance non-existent, so of course it's only getting played after the children have gone to bed and everybody's a bit tipsy. And of course it's E and Izuna dancing to it; her sealing apprentice probably challenged Kita's brother-in-law to dance this with her on purpose.

Izuna and E have been in a relationship for almost half a year now, which oddly enough seems likely to continue despite Izuna's by now rather notorious disinclination to stick with _any_ romantic relationship for longer than eight months. He didn't even notice her until after she got her hands cut off and doggedly taught herself to write again while learning to use chakra strings, and that she made him chase her –not entirely deliberately, seeing as the sealing apprentice didn't actually _notice_ Izuna was pursuing her romantically for a good four months– has clearly been good for Izuna. That E has always put her sealing and combat skills ahead of romance has also been good for him; Izuna's a bit spoiled and unconsciously privileged, so having to work and wait for something he wants has likely improved his character.

Kita has a bet going with Tsune that this is going to be Izuna's last relationship; Tsune thinks they're going to fall apart within the next year or so –amicably but still– and both move on, but Kita doesn't think so. E isn't given to committing herself lightly and Izuna pursuing the younger woman at _all_ was frankly anomalous. Her brother-in-law has never been the sort to do that if his advances get rebuffed; he generally shrugs and moves on. That he didn't –that he made an effort to get to know E and help her recover her skills until she realised he really was interested in her– implies that Izuna's heart has finally committed and he has found a person –beyond his brother– that he would gladly move mountains for.

She's looking forward to winning that bet; Tsune needs to learn to pay a little more attention to the behaviour of specific individuals in context and give less credence to what they have done before and what she would do in their place.

The song ends to raucous cheering and applause just as Madara slides into the audience on the far side of the circle.

"Who's next?" The biwa player asks loudly as E hauls Izuna over her shoulder with a chakra string and bounds up onto a nearby roof with her chuckling cargo, doubtless in search of some privacy. Kita's husband meets her eyes across the open space, a mischievous grin brightening his face, and shoves himself forwards. Kita also elbows her way to the front; this will be fun. So _much_ fun!

"We are, Tanjō."

"Right away, Madara-sama!"

That the biwa player leads his fellow musicians into one of Kita's attempts to recreate the energetic main theme from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' for them to dance to is even better.

* * *

The fire dancing is over, colour and beauty and control far surpassing anything Tobirama has ever seen or imagined, and the crowds ebb as the last of the older children go to bed and the many young adults cluster together to sneak sake. Older adults –which the Uchiha clan has precious few of– swirl in new patterns, some taking over the food stands still serving treats as others head back towards the clan compound's centre and the sound of music and laughter.

Tobirama flows with the tide of chattering bodies, caught in a conversation with a charcoal burner whose flurry of fiery butterflies were so exquisitely intricate a daimyo would pay fistfuls of gold for a single performance. This man is a master of his element, despite his reserves being so limited that the Senju would never have bothered to teach him at all. But the Uchiha don't care for that; all are Uchiha, so all learn to wield the fire that is their birthright.

Tobirama doubts he will ever have as light a touch as this quiet young man, doubts either Madara or Izuna could twine fire so finely. Beauty born of weakness, as fragile and lovely as the colourful insects portrayed and more highly praised by the clansmen around him than any firestorm could ever be; Tobirama wishes Tōka could have seen it.

Being more interested in his conversation than where the crowd is carrying him, Tobirama doesn't notice where they have ended up until Madara's chakra bounds up in a vertical leap, unexpectedly close, flaring brilliantly as Kita's follows after him, shadowing his rise and vaulting effortlessly over his head before following him down again. Head jerking up, Tobirama finally notices the music with its heartbeat rhythm and wanton wildness, the lanterns in the trees, the clapping of the Uchiha around the open space cleared between Clan Hall and the other houses, the absent swaying of the packed bodies present and how almost all eyes are fixed on the show, people climbing walls and trees and buildings for a better view regardless of their festival yukata and geta.

Next to him Yuwan hums thoughtfully. "This way, Tobirama-san."

Tobirama lets himself be led around towards the fine samurai-style houses and through a front gate, his guide nodding to the Uchiha standing on the low garden wall and walking up the path to leap lightly onto the roof of the genkan –past a trio teenage girls giggling over a bottle of sake– and up onto the tiles above. There are a few others up here, but barely a scattered handful compared to the press down below and the view is more comprehensive, which soothes the itch in Tobirama's mind at being so dangerously confined in a crowd of chakra signatures he still subconsciously classifies as hostile. Years of habit are not undone in mere weeks.

Settling himself below the roof ridge, Tobirama accepts the dango sticks handed absently in his direction, taking one and passing the rest along to the woman on his other side, who then does likewise. Below them the music picks up again and the two dancers –the Uchiha Outguard Head and his wife– swirl around each-other with greater speed, every move reminiscent of the battlefield but every strike evaded, every point of contact a caress rather than a blow, both perfectly in time with each-other and the music as their eyes gleam with the sharingan and their chakra sings with joy.

Tobirama absently nibbles on the warm dango and accepts a dish of sake from the teenager walking the roof-ridge behind him, his attention caught on the dance playing out below. The musicians are improvising on a theme, the beat speeding and slowing irregularly yet all the players perfectly in time with one-another and the dancers never hesitating. He knows that the sharingan allows its wielder to anticipate a blow, to read an attacker's intentions, but in a dance like this it becomes clear how two sharingan wielders can weave a performance between them, never doubting that their partner will rise to meet them.

Madara stops dead and Kita is launched upwards, one geta using her husband's shoulder to gain additional height as she pulls her knees up and somersaults, arms keeping her yukata close around her shins. Madara moves back, turns up, breathes out a fireball–

–Kita breathes the fire _in_ as she falls downwards head-first, swallowing the chakra–

–fiery wings full of her husband's chakra roar into being around her, the heat palpable even this far away and the updraft all but halting her fall–

–the crowd roars–

–Madara grins, teeth bright in the shadows beneath red eyes as the fire fades–

–Kita lands with a high kick that her husband has to back-bend away from and the dance continues without pause, hands reaching and feet swirling as they circle around each-other, every would-be blow perfectly on the racing beat.

Tobirama sips his sake and wills his own heartbeat to settle rather than follow the tempo being set. Yes, he can feel the chakra all around him, hot and heady and intoxicatingly joyful as an entire clan celebrates as one. Yes, he can feel Madara and Kita, who are both utterly enthralled by the exhilaration of movement, the thrill of a fight with none of the risks and a firm undercurrent of passion deferred, but he still needs to breathe.

Mito would like to dance like this, he thinks. Hashirama would probably struggle –his fighting style is not so flexible– but Mito is quick and nimble and her chains give her leverage; she would relish such a challenge and Kita would be no less delighted to match her.

Fire blooms again, Kita spitting a respectably-sized fireball across the arena below and Madara swallowing it down; he's never seen Uchiha _eat_ fire before, which rather implies it's a rare skill, possibly like Madara's blue fire for pottery. Going by the tone of the cheers and hooting down below it also has intimate implications; possibly requiring a more profound understanding of the other person's chakra, or else that slight blending that most shinobi couples tend to manifest after a few years of marriage.

Tobirama isn't sure how long he watches for –his dango long since finished and his sake cup refilled at least twice– but the music eventually slows, bringing the dancers with it. The grace of those languid movements takes far more skill and so much more muscle control to perform at half- or quarter-speed, especially after sustained exertion, but neither one falters. Then there is a sudden swift flourish –a spin, a kick and a leap to avoid it– and the music finally stops.

A heartbeat of silence as Madara pushes loose hair out of his face and Kita straightens from her crouch, then a roar of appreciation and applause. Tobirama sets his cup down so he can clap as well; it is one thing to know that the sharingan allows for such things and to see them on the battlefield, but here on a summer's evening he can finally appreciate the beauty and grace of the Uchiha's bloodline, as sharp and fine as a bird on the wing.

Madara drags his wife off back towards the Uchiha Clan Hall as the musicians step down and are replaced by others and more couples converge on the impromptu dance floor; clearly this is the next stage of the festivities, although his hosts are not the only couple to have something more intimate in mind. He can feel several other pairs making their ways away from the crowd, in search of shadowed corners to expend more privately the energies roused by Madara and Kita's perfectly matched performance.

Yuwan is gone –dragged off by a laughing woman– and Tobirama descends in search of the teen who provided the sake; the cup in his hand is very fine and he doesn't want it broken or lost.

He is propositioned five times in a short span of minutes: by a woman barely out of girlhood, then a much older woman, then a man his own age, another slightly older woman with fiery scars and finally by a married couple, at which point he decides to retreat back to his own room for the night. Evidently he was wrong about the dancing being the main event of the evening and he has no intention whatsoever of getting entangled in those newly-agreed rules concerning cross-clan children. They were a headache to write, will be more of a headache to enact and he has enough on his plate already.

He climbs onto the back of the engawa of the Uchiha Clan Hall, leaving his sandals on the smooth boards before slipping into his room barefoot, welcoming the blurring effect of the seals as he sets the sake cup down on the desk. It's been a very long day and he's possibly a little drunk; tomorrow morning will arrive all too soon but now at least he can sleep.

He'll return the cup in the morning.

* * *

It's barely a week since the big festival celebrating the beginning of peace, but if Madara wants the daimyō to support what he's doing, he has to go to the capital to sort out the matter of land ownership well before the village building starts in earnest. So he packs up suitable clothing and assigns himself a squad under the pretence of a trade mission, makes sure he has all the necessary paperwork, kisses his wife, assures his girls that this is going to be a _short_ absence and heads out.

Izuna is still keeping a wary eye on Tobirama, watching the Senju's every move from behind Kita's seals when he isn't doing his best to ignore the man's very existence, but Madara can't do anything there to make things better for his brother. He can be supportive –he _is_ being supportive and he's not the only one– but this is something Izuna has to overcome himself. If peace is going to work, Izuna has to learn to trust.

Madara is certain his brother will succeed.

He does not tell the squad where they are going until after they've been on the road for a day; it's not like any of them will be accompanying him into the daimyo's presence after all, and he has sent a letter ahead of them to ensure they are expected. This is a matter of business, not a social visit, so it will not take as long as all that despite it requiring his most formal clothing, something he really would prefer to do without.

At least he has his own sets of such clothing now, rather than having to don the elderly and much-mended set that he learned to wear under his father's stern gaze. The Uchiha clan is considerably more affluent now than when he was a child; Madara is going to spend the rest of his life thanking the kami for Kita and all she has done for their clan. Her courage and boldness that always amused his father so –that thoughtless defiance of the social standards set for woman– have enriched the Uchiha at startling speed and that trend is set to continue indefinitely.

Once wealthy, it is very easy to accumulate further wealth. It is becoming wealthy in the first place that is challenging, and Kita has achieved it while balancing the clan's books against the costs of war. Madara suspects that is half the reason the daimyo's wife is so persistently interested in her; it takes considerable talent to achieve what Kita has done, and with the peace she will soon have more resources to work with and access to a larger market. Such things cause waves and the daimyo prefers not to be caught unawares.

They arrive in the capital in the early afternoon of the day before the audience, leaving plenty of time for Madara to settle in at the palace and for his squad to carry out numerous errands in the city; he _did_ prepare for this and he has no doubt that when they depart back to clan grounds, it will be with a selection of new orders from eager clients.

All of which makes it so easy to distract the eyes of the gossips, courtiers and servants from Madara's dawn meeting with the daimyo. Both men wear their finest sokutai and drink tea as the sun rises, silently enjoying the beauty of the early hour before turning to address the politics of the situation.

"My congratulations on the treaty you have brokered with the Senju, Uchiha-dono," the daimyo says eventually, setting his tea bowl aside, "and my thanks for your dedication to the strength and prosperity of Fire Country, even above your duty to your ancestors."

"Times change, Daimyo-dono," Madara replies, tone deliberately light and pleasant, "and if my clan is to prosper we must change with them. What worked for our more recent ancestors will not always work for us and that is a good thing; these are better times. We have now a chance at successes that have not been seen in many centuries and it would be most remiss of me not to pursue them."

"Indeed," the daimyo agrees, layers of meaning in a single word. "Truly your victories are to be commended." Well that is confirmation that the man has seen _all_ the ways the Senju are now beholden and subordinate to the Uchiha and that Hashirama has agreed to each and every one. "Now, what is the matter you wished to discuss?"

Madara sets down his own tea bowl so that the servants can retrieve it and take it away, producing the wallet of documents from a seal in his sleeve. "Now that we have peace, the Uchiha clan would greatly appreciate Daimyo-dono's assistance in consolidating our holdings a little, so that we may better feed ourselves," he explains, keeping his tone humble as he unfolds the map of the immediate area around the Uchiha clan, tracing the elevation lines and old flood markings. "There is unclaimed floodplain on the far side of the Naka river from our lands, to the south and east, suitable for growing crops once the trees are cleared, that would render us more self-sufficient." Ask first, had always been his father's guidance. First you ask, to gauge the willingness of the one you are appealing to. Then you negotiate or threaten based on their response, or abandon the proposition entirely for a time if it is poorly received.

"And what does the Uchiha clan offer to the daimyo in return?"

A promising riposte, especially once tone and posture are taken into account; Madara opens the other map, which has a much smaller scale and so covers far more terrain. "This is one of the clan's more remote holdings," he says, placing his finger on the red-outlined patch of land in the lower left quarter of the map. "It is near the border with Wind Country, comprising a hill with an aging but still sound watchtower and a clean well. It overlooks a large portion of the river delta, as well as the sea to the south and much of the river plains to the north." It's a strategic gem, even without the well; Madara is hoping to get a _lot_ of land for it.

"Why is the Uchiha clan so eager to divest this property in particular?" The daimyo asks wryly, likely aware that Madara can easily read his sudden increased interest in the proceedings. The surrounding plains are all part of Fire Country, so with the watchtower as a focal point the daimyo could set up a small garrison and farms to feed it. He could even expand the derelict fortification into a proper castle, strengthening his hold on the border and increasing his control over local trade.

"As Daimyo-dono is already aware, the Uchiha are moving beyond warfare," Madara replies smoothly. "This holding, while strategic and convenient when the clan accepts regular missions within Wind Country, loses its value as those covert missions decrease in favour of trade. However to Daimyo-dono, who is responsible for the protection of the surrounding lands, the Uchiha clan is certain it would be far more valuable in the longer term, especially when compared to the lands adjacent to the clan's primary holdings, which are uninhabited and include many old battlefields." Old traps, sharp metal scrap, forgotten bodies, entire swathes burnt to the bedrock or filled with dense, impassible thickets; no civilian farmer would ever try to cultivate such land if they had any other choice.

The daimyo chuckles. "Not so valuable as all that, surely?" He chides, but Madara can see his interest and there are notes in his tone which make it explicit that he is in full agreement; all that remains now is the haggling over where the borders of the Uchiha's new holding will lie.

"Surely Daimyo-dono understands that as Outguard Head, I must always strive to provide the Uchiha with the very best that can be granted to them?"

"Of course," the daimyo agrees, "but Uchiha-dono must also understand that as Daimyo of Fire Country, I must also do my best for those under my protection. I will have my own archivists study the Palace records of both territories and their respective value, and we will meet again in two days' time to discuss the specifics we would each prefer."

"Naturally, Daimyo-dono," Madara agrees, folding up the maps again and tucking them away with a polite seated bow. "I am pleased to have the Uchiha clan's proposal considered so swiftly."

He does have a monetary estimate of the tower's worth in the document wallet –for tax purposes, dating back about forty years– but the daimyo likely has rather more than that he will want consulting, including details of nearby roads and farmland and a list of recent border disputes. All of which will have to be weighed by the relevant ministers so that a suitable offer can be made. An offer that will no doubt be a little on the stingy side, so Madara can protest and allow the daimyo the illusion of generosity and benevolence when he increases it to more properly match the Osprey Nest's value.

Such is politics.

* * *

"You clearly don't read enough if you're not familiar with Samsara–"

"Samsara refers to the theoretical cycle of each _individual's_ experience of birth, life, death and rebirth, _not_ to the occasionally repetitive nature of human history," Tobirama retorts, not even looking up from his scroll. "To extend the concept in such a manner is not compatible with Buddhist thinking and therefore in itself _avidya_ , ignorance, which perpetuates misunderstanding and suffering. To believe that we are trapped in an inescapable cycle of violence we cannot escape regardless of our own choices is to seek to offload the blame we each bear in perpetuating that cycle by our own participation in it; are you truly so mindless and impotent that your actions in the past war were _not_ of your own choosing?"

"You!" Izuna snarls softly, his eyes briefly flickering scarlet, but he does not move from his seat on the far side of the main room from Tobirama. Her brother-in-law had come over to recover his scrolls from Madara's study –he'd not thought to pack them when he moved last month– and while sorting personal purchases from clan property he'd found a new scroll, written by Tobirama to refute the arguments posed by Izuna's favourite philosophy scroll. Izuna had stormed into the main room to complain to Kita –assuming the scroll was her doing, seeing as she has made it clear on multiple occasions how foolish she finds his reasoning there– and then become embroiled in an argument with their Senju guest, seeing as Tobirama immediately admitted that the offending document was his own work.

The argument has so far been fairly low-key, likely because Azami is napping on a cushion next to Kita and neither man cares to raise their voice or chakra enough to disturb her. More considerate than a lot of Uchiha manage to be while arguing, but Kita knows that being able to sense others increases awareness of their moods and needs; neither man is going to forget Azami is there when they can _feel_ her.

Izuna rallies. "But Iida is considered an authority–"

"Certain Iida are, yes, but this _particular_ Iida is considered misguided by all _reputable_ Buddhist scholars," Tobirama shuts down calmly, tone utterly final. "Believe me, Uchiha, I know; my clan is primarily Buddhist and I had to memorise so _much_ Buddhist scripture and theory while learning kanji. My brother even names his attacks after Buddhist concepts, which should give you an idea of how much we had to wade through as children." It's true that Hashirama does not come across as particularly scholarly.

Izuna scoffs sharply; Kita looks discreetly up from her mending in time to see him jerkily open the newer scroll and settle in to read it properly. Well, that could have gone far worse than it actually did, although it probably helps that Madara is away on a mission –negotiating with the daimyo, not that either Tobirama or Izuna is aware of that– and won't be back for at least another three days.

The day following that surprisingly minor spat over Buddhist philosophy between her brother-in-law and her guest, Senju Mito is escorted up to the Uchiha settlement by Tōka for the sealing get-together Tobirama arranged shortly after the treaty was put in place. Kita has been looking forward to it; she's not actually met Mito socially yet –well not properly– but talking to Tobirama has revealed bits and pieces of his relationship with his sister-in-law, all of which suggest she is a person well worth knowing.

Tōka persuades Izuna to let her join an Outguard genjutsu lesson which he of course then stays to supervise, leaving Kita to host her guests privately. Well, semi-privately; since this meeting is about seals, Yori has an open invitation and is likely to stop by. E and Iō probably won't; neither is currently all that interested in the creative side of her work and both are well-versed in her methodology.

Mito it turns out is a soft-spoken but fiercely passionate woman who qualified as a seal master within her birth clan well before being betrothed to Hashirama. Kita was already aware of there being a few widely-recognised schools of sealing in existence, where tradition and shared convention allow for easily reproducible results and mutually intelligible material, but she'd not realised the Uzumaki 'sealing affinity' was actually a school in and of itself. In retrospect, she probably should have. She's been hearing about 'Uzumaki fūinjutsu' for _years_ now, but it's always been peripheral to her own responsibilities and priorities.

Kita has also never previously had it made so abundantly clear that her own sealing style is entirely divorced from the existing conventions used by other specialists. To the point that Mito and Tobirama, both experienced masters in their own right and highly practiced in deciphering others' work, are unable to make heads or tails of her seals even after she's expanded them to allow for detailed scrutiny.

Attempting to explain the symbols and process does not seem to help.

"This section converts impact to heat?" Tobirama repeats, frowning down at the expanded and inactive seal design Kita has sketched out; the hot-tub seal is both practical and fairly innocuous, so Kita doesn't mind sharing it. She hadn't expected it to be so difficult for her audience to understand though. "This bit is rather obviously the amplification array" –the set of concentric circles like ripples in water were fairly self-evident– "but I'm not sure what scale you're using for the temperature limiter, or how you make it self-maintaining until the water is drained out." He peers again at the interlocking kanji and pictograms of the seal which both heats the Clan Hall's bathing pool and keeps the water free of microscopic creepy crawlies. "Or how you can convert blunt force to heat at all, honestly." He looks affronted by his own incomprehension.

How does a person explain the first law of thermodynamics? Where does she even _start_ when there is no common ground to build on between her past life and the current one? That she knows of, at least; the science may well exist _somewhere._ That section of the seal is little more than the kanji for movement and heat, with an arrow connecting the former to the latter.

 _Heat is work and work is heat_.

This little scribble likely has many other practical applications, all of which would revolutionise the quality of life of the inhabitants of the village they're not actually building just yet –it's too hot out of doors right now– but currently Kita needs to find the terminology to define a truth she knows to her very bones but has never actually studied the details of, because everything she knows and remembers of physics and chemistry is built _on_ it.

"It's about power and the potential for movement," she attempts, groping blindly for the right words. "Falling water can move a mill wheel, and any solid thing that moves too fast against another will heat up. So movement holds inherent power that can be converted to heat, which this section does directly; the falling water in itself does not have enough inherent power to heat the pool very much, which is why there's the amplification section and the temperature limiter, which turns off the amplifier once the desired temperature is reached." If Japanese has a word for thermostat she's never heard it before; she's not even sure what the 'stat' part of 'thermostat' refers to. "The infinite loop section at the centre of the seal is then activated, keeping the heat levels steady until the water is drained away, which deactivates the seal." She needs to show Tobirama a Möbius strip, so he too can appreciate the mind-fuckery of a flat surface with only one edge.

"I know what it _does_ ," Tobirama complains, haughty as a wet cat, "but I still can't see _how_. It's nowhere near precise enough to be as effective as it is! If _I_ drew something like this it would explode or just do nothing at all!"

He seems affronted by Kita's success. She _is_ going to introduce him to the KISS principle, she swears. Just, not right now.

"Why not a circle for infinity?" Mito asks, perfectly reasonably and far less confrontationally.

Kita can hardly explain her past life's mathematical studies including arabic numerals and greek letters, creating her association of that pretty little double loop with the concept of the infinite, eternal and unending, or that said association is as deep as bedrock and twice as solid. "I associate circles with completion and demarcation, not endless continuation," she replies, glancing over at the redhead who has thus far been taking notes in relative silence. "My seals are all about concepts and metaphors and the double loop stands for infinity and eternity, a line with no ending or beginning."

Mito hums thoughtfully, fingertips tapping her brush handle. "Now I know what it does and how, I believe I could create a seal with the same effect in my own style," she muses, "but I suspect it would be much larger, several times more complex and would likely require additional chakra to activate, rather than being powered by ambient energy and water impact and deactivating again once the weight of water was drained away. Yet I cannot make sufficient sense of all the parts of _your_ seal to be confident it would work for me if I copied it."

Tobirama grunts agreement, leaning over the sterilisation section again; no doubt he's thinking of all the sanitary implications of being able to cleanse water of infectious agents without having to boil it first. It's not actually a modification of her stitched skull-and-crossbones seal despite performing essentially the same function: the actual kanji written out read 'death to tiny unseen,' which doesn't exactly make sense to a person not familiar with lenses, microscopes and the existence of single-celled organisms.

Germ theory is fairly prevalent and almost everybody knows that illnesses are actually alive in their own right, but the Senju may not necessarily know the details of various parasite life-cycles and how they can react aberrantly in humans, which are not technically infections but rather infestations. Shinobi can and do succumb to those every now and then, because chakra does not help the body to fight them off; in fact in many cases it makes them _worse_.

"You are an artist," Tobirama says abruptly. Kita blinks at him. "You think in pictures," he clarifies; "symbolism as it appears in art and literature, hence your depiction of ripples for amplification. It is more a matter of ideas and concepts than of numbers and measurements and what can be physically defined; allusion and association." His eyes drop to his own notes. "Theories, associations and metaphors; not facts."

Mito smiles fiercely. "I see. I do not believe I could ever make that work by myself, but with your having _proved_ it can be done…" Her eyes gleam. "So many interesting possibilities." She flutters her eyelashes at Kita. "Might we collaborate on projects in the future? I have so many questions."

"I still don't see why my method is so different," Kita says, aware of the faintly petulant note in her voice. "I mean, handseals refer to the zodiac, somehow invoking elemental forces and various other properties, along with all manner of other independently-developed signs that only work because we believe in them. The tiger seal looks nothing like an actual tiger, and real tigers have nothing to do with fire, and yet the tiger seal twists chakra into elemental fire because everybody _expects_ it to. How is my sealing style any _more_ arbitrary?" She's always struggled with handseals because the subconscious associations do not come naturally; she does better with direct shape manipulation.

Tobirama actually twitches, his facial expression abruptly full of the blank and mildly horrified introspection of a person questioning deeply-held assumptions. "Handseals work because we expect them to," he repeats, dead-eyed, tone caught between revelation and despair. "Sealing works because we expect it to. _Chakra_ works because we expect it to."

"I've always had terrible trouble with handseals," Kita agrees, rather vindictively glad to have company in her misery, "and my seals make perfect sense to me."

"So the reason your various apprentices can make your style work is that they know nothing else, so naturally believe wholeheartedly that they _will_ work," Mito muses, "because of course they do; they've _seen_ your seals work. So of course they can reproduce them, even without knowing _how_ they work exactly."

"It's easier with the stitched seals," Kita concedes, "because they're like a jutsu with custom handseals, imbuing a specific set of movements with a singular concept that is then embedded in the resulting design. There's over a dozen clanswomen making my stitched seals, but I only have two apprentices for my inked seals and neither of them is producing original material yet." Iō because he is primarily focused on minding the clan's younger children these days, and E who is still clawing back what she lost when her hands were taken from her. They're both proficient in all her existing seals, but neither one has really tried to push boundaries yet. They may never do so; Kita has come to realise that it does take a very particular mindset to make a sealing master.

Neither Senju comments on her various past apprentices and assistants; she has lost a lot of them over the years.

"But if it's just about belief, why do so many seals _fail_?" Tobirama demands of nobody in particular, his hands buried in his hair as he stares at the far corner of the ceiling.

"Belief, confidence, understanding and internal consistency?" Kita offers. "Every element of the seal must be internally consistent and the person making it must know why every single part of the seal is required and what purpose each stroke serves for a seal to work. So a poorly-drawn seal will not work and neither will one cobbled together from other people's designs. I created my own sealing style from scratch, so it works perfectly for me so long as my calligraphy is sufficiently precise. You both are using existing styles, so you have to know those styles inside-out before getting results." It's entirely possible they're using the same style, given the longstanding alliance between the Uzumaki and the Senju, but Kita suspects there are variations. In terms of the kinds of seals produced if nothing else.

"Because belief and confidence are built on knowledge and understanding," Mito agrees lightly, "so a confident master may succeed with a sub-par seal, while an insecure student may obtain mediocre results with a well-scribed one." She sighs. "This certainly puts the shark among the fishes and explains so _much_ , too."

There is a pause.

"Kita, explain your symbols to me again," Tobirama demands eventually, picking up his brush again and turning to a fresh sheet of paper. "If they work, they work, and your designs _are_ admirably compact."

Bemused at her friend's newfound determination to take things on faith, Kita begins her explanation again.

"The seal is a maintenance seal, intended to keep water clean and at a specific temperature for as long as it is in contact with the seal. Hence the central anchor being an infinite loop…"

* * *

"Izuna?"

Madara's little brother glances over from where he's spectating as Senju Tōka coaches Benten through a naginata routine. "Niisan, welcome back."

"Is something wrong?" Madara asks, because he can't really think of a good reason for Izuna to be _outside_ the compound like this, never mind having Benten out here too. Even with what looks like two full squads-worth of bored warriors to chaperon his niece's surprise lesson with the Senju. And why is Tōka here at all? Surely if she's visiting her cousin she should be _with_ him, not out here with Izuna.

His brother gifts him with a flat look. "Niisan. There are currently _three_ fūinjutsu masters in our clan compound. _Three_ , because Mito-san has decided she wants to get to know Kita so has spent all day here three days running. Day one was quiet, day two involved Kita turning off gravity to prove a point to Tobirama and I decided this morning that I was happier _not_ knowing whatever it is they're doing and being sufficiently far away that nobody will demand I be reassuring when they inevitably break reality again."

Madara's not sure if he should laugh or panic. His wife _turned off gravity_? To _prove a point_? "What point was she proving?"

Behind Izuna, Kiyoshi of the Raiden lineage –one of his wife's longstanding close friends– giggles. "Tobirama-san made the mistake of dismissing Kita-chan's comment regarding combat fūinjutsu applications on the basis that she has no practical experience."

Madara winces. The Uchiha's utter dearth of battle fūinjutsu is due to Kita cheerfully spiting his father by refusing to submit _any_ of her more offensive discoveries for proper testing, then _continuing_ to not submit her efforts for proper testing even after his death on the basis that the Uchiha did not _need_ seals to come up with new and creative ways to kill people. Madara has no illusions whatsoever that she's come up with _all_ manner of acutely unpleasant ways to commit murder with ink and paper; she just refuses to share them on the basis that they are impossible to test ethically. "So the turning off gravity?"

If they hadn't been inside a building, Tobirama-san would probably have blown away like thistledown and never been seen again," Kiyoshi says cheerfully. "Kita-chan didn't even have to touch him; did you know she can throw seals like jutsu now?"

"I hadn't, no." Not that he's surprised; Kita's always looking for ways to improve the versatility and scope of fūinjutsu applications, so that she's managed to work out contactless sealing is not exactly a surprise. It's just shaped chakra after all, so it's theoretically plausible when she can already apply certain seals by touch and has so much shaping practice from both wire-work and stitching.

"I suggested we tire a string to his leg and fly him like a kite, but she vetoed the idea," Izuna sighs. "She _does_ think that with suitable safety precautions it can be used to develop a flying mapping platform though, so a few people are working on what kind of safety features would be required and what such a platform would need to include. Nagi's supervising."

Well, that's definitely useful; maps are immeasurably valuable and being able to sketch an aerial view without having to fit one together from perspectives taken from various mountains, cliff-tops and on-ground measurements would be much faster. It would involve much less memorising too, for all that mapmaking is a staple rotation for squads recovering from a run of battlefield assignments. Generally because the battlefields do actually _need_ remapping after Uchiha and Senju have clashed on them a few times and memorising trees, roads, ravines, hillsides and the occasional wild animal is a calming contrast to violence and death.

"Are they doing fūinjutsu in the Clan Hall?"

"No, they're in Kita-chan's workshop at the end of the garden," Kiyoshi assures him. "There've been no explosions at all so far, which Tōka-san seems to consider both miraculous and suspect." She sniffs. "Clearly non-Uchiha fūinjutsu fails much more often."

Madara smirks; most of the clan is probably unaware of it, but Sannosawa-sensei had commented repeatedly and with considerable incredulity over the years on how benign Kita's sealing process is. There are no explosive failures –no explosions at all in fact– no implosions and only the occasional small fire. Yes, her experimental seals don't work a lot of the time, but the failures were never particularly exciting. They just… don't do anything. Or do the wrong thing, which is occasionally interesting but never particularly damaging. Although that time a seal had entirely unravelled the bit of rag it was stitched on had been _very_ peculiar.

That Kita's sealing style is the safest ever created is more than enough grounds to documents her creations extensively, so as to make sure the clan can continue using it into the far future. That her seals have so markedly improved the Uchiha's ability to support themselves is almost superfluous, although Madara knows that said utility means that even if her style _were_ dangerous, he'd still be encouraging her to take on more apprentices. His father always saw the solidity of her style as a bonus rather than a primary benefit, but Madara can see the potential in a sealing school where experimentation is unlikely to be fatal.

Enough Uchiha lose hair, clothing and the occasional finger messing around with jutsu as it is.

"Good mission?" Izuna asks belatedly.

"Smooth," Madara confirms; he got what he wanted –a little more than he was hoping for even– and none of the squad he took with him actually know what he was talking to the daimyo _about_ , which makes him hopeful it'll take a while for the exact details of the land ownership plan he and Kita have in mind to leak out to their new allies. Ideally they won't find out until after the Senju's farming vassals have all moved onto Uchiha land, but even if it doesn't turn out that way Madara's sure he can convince Hashirama that he was trying to be helpful. After all, if the Senju aren't living on the daimyo's land then the daimyo can't pressure them into accepting trade war missions or political assassinations. Of course if the daimyo actually goes to war _properly_ then the Uchiha will get called up and expected to field an army, but that's rather different. They'd be fighting alongside the daimyo's forces then, not acting covertly.

"We got some trade opportunities out of it as well," Madara adds, because Izuna does care about that kind of thing. "Want to escort a squad down to the Hyūga next month? They've made a big porcelain order; probably a wedding planned or some such." The Hyūga favour arranged marriages more than most other shinobi clans, especially in their Main House.

Izuna hums. "Sounds interesting," he admits; "it can't be their heir –he's married already– so either they're wanting to show off by buying a whole new set of everything for banquets, or they're trying to gain leverage in the capital again by marrying some nobleman's daughter in. Hm… wait, the Hyūga have that ridiculous House system with multiple ruling lineages; it'll be some Main House asshole wanting to gain influence within their clan by marrying off their son or daughter in style. Possibly two different Main House assholes marrying their kids to each-other, thereby doubling their available budget."

"Well we're getting their money so I don't care," Madara shrugs. "Although it would probably be a good idea to know what it is they're doing exactly; Kita might know, Hinagiku-san writes to her regularly." It was a good in, seeing as his wife's friend is married to the Hyūga Heir.

"No harm in asking," Izuna agrees, "although if it's still in the negotiation phase Hinagiku-san will probably refrain from talking about it. I didn't get the impression she mentioned her pregnancy until fairly late; Kita certainly only said something a few weeks before we got the official birth notice."

Madara thinks that could just as easily be a 'women keeping secrets' thing –pregnancy is a risky business after all and quite a few people seem to think it's unlucky to tell too many outsiders before a birth– which could equally apply to marriage arrangements. After all, why get worked up about them before they are confirmed, especially if they might yet fall through? However it goes, he's sure his wife will insist on sending some kind of gift. She'd sent a gift to the Hyūga Heir and his wife on the birth of their daughter two years ago after all, and Madara had rather got the impression from the polite letter of thanks Hyūga Hisaaki had sent in return that no such gift had been expected for a daughter. Well, not from _outsiders_ at least; there've been almost as many women leading the Hyūga Clan as men, historically speaking, although it's less obvious than it might be. Their Main House lineages seem to lead collectively, so it isn't always clear which one their Clan Head _is_ unless full introductions are made, and it still pays to keep track of who married who and what their children's names are. The Hyūga Main house's insistence on using the sun kanji –usually pronounced 'hi'– as the first character of their personal names really does _not_ help.

"I'll ask," he agrees, turning towards the river. "I should greet Mito-san as well." She is after all Hashirama's wife and due appropriate courtesy.

Izuna hums and turns back to continue watching Benten, who is now being taught a jabbing move by Tōka; clearly he has no intention of going back any sooner than necessary, which is fair. His brother may _never_ enjoy being in close proximity with Tobirama, so that he's prepared to avoid the man of his own initiative without making a fuss is a sign of considerable maturity. Especially considering how just last week his little brother was still compulsively stalking the younger Senju.


	7. Chapter 7

Clearly he's got far too comfortable with the Uchiha, because one day he's being introduced to Kita's friends as part of an attempt to keep himself busy –he needs them to introduce him to the Uchiha women who wash the clan's clothing, so he can refine his laundry jutsu further and get expert advice– and the next thing Tobirama knows it's two months later and Yori is cradling her three-day-old daughter while demanding to visit the Senju compound.

"My husband needs to meet his daughter." It's not really a demand at all; it's a statement of fact, which Madara is being granted the opportunity to agree with and offer her an escort, so he can avoid looking bad when she goes anyway. Tobirama's got to know Yori better since the treaty signing and they've discussed medical procedures and techniques on multiple occasions, so he's rather familiar with her approach. It's not so different from his aunts and the Senju clan's other medical specialists, save that the casual defiance of orders from above extends beyond safeguarding her patients' wellbeing.

Then again, Yori isn't actually _lower_ in rank than Madara by Uchiha standards; she's spouse to a lineage head –an absent lineage head at that, so she currently wields her husband's authority within the clan– and there's no war on, so Madara as Outguard Head can't curtail her movements based on clan welfare and security. It's literally just a matter of respect to even inform him of her intentions at all. That Hikaku is currently a hostage to the Senju makes the visit a potentially diplomatic matter for the Uchiha clan –which would indeed fall under Madara's authority as Outguard Head– but that is a reach because Yori is not visiting the Senju with diplomatic intent; she is visiting her Uchiha husband, who just so happens to be living with the Senju at present.

"I would like you to take Izuna with you, so request that you wait for him to return from his most recent mission," Madara says calmly from his seat on the engawa, setting his brush aside so it doesn't drip on his painting. "He is due back today and there have been no complications, so he will be available tomorrow morning. Waiting a day will also enable me to write to Hashirama-san to inform him of your intentions, and I'm sure Tobirama-san will be willing to add a note for one on the Senju medics in case you find yourself requiring urgent assistance. Providing Hashirama-san agrees, you will of course be permitted to visit as often as you wish thereafter." Of course his brother will agree; Hashirama will think it's _romantic_.

Yori huffs, but bows acceptingly. "My thanks for your consideration, Madara-sama. I will depart tomorrow morning."

Madara bows in return and Yori marches off out of the garden, the two older women and teenage apprentice shadowing her also bowing to the Outguard Head before hurrying away in her wake. The Uchiha Outguard Head, terror of the battlefield and killer of more Senju than any other two of his clansmen put together, smiles fondly after them before picking up his brush again and continuing to paint the view of the willow and koi pond, complete with Kita sitting in the shade down by the water, working on somebody's coat panel.

Tobirama is still adjusting to the varying degrees of irreverence the Uchiha clan show when faced with their Outguard Head; he's fairly sure it's situational and has evidence to back up his theory –uniformly excellent manners inside the Clan Hall's formal reception room and reliably informal friendliness whenever Madara is out by the kilns– but it's the in-between moments like this one, where the setting is less than entirely formal but the implications are not, that are the most nerve-racking. He can tell there must _be_ clear boundaries that both parties are respecting for the exchanges to be so easy and smooth; he's just not quite sure where they _are_.

He returns to his own planning; Anija has come through on funds and he's already discussed with the Uchiha's smiths what kind of water pipes they're going to buy, so now it's just a matter of working out the most efficient layout of wells and reservoirs and how to account for future expansion. He already knows the pipes are going to have to be under paths or roadways –repairing them will be impossible otherwise– and he needs to start refining sewage management strategies as well, which will involve the potters firing shaped bricks for the drains and tanks. As has been pointed out, they can't just dump everything in the river. He now knows where that particular in-jokes comes from and Tobirama agrees it would be best that the fish not suffer.

He's probably going to need to use seals, integrating them into the building process, to keep the waste contained and ensure neither smell nor infectious agents spread beyond the processing area. There are thankfully multiple treatises on hygienic and efficient waste management already –the daimyo's city would be a hotbed of sickness every summer otherwise– so it's just a matter of applying existing methods and improving them where possible. The Uchiha were at least able to hire a skilled surveyor –from a minor Earth Country clan– so Tobirama has the best possible geological cross-section maps to work with.

"If you want to write a letter to your brother, I'll have it delivered alongside Yori's," Madara says, glancing up as he dips his brush to wet the ink again.

Tobirama hums. His brother's latest letter was a complaint of being bored delivered by an irritable Tōka, because when Hashirama is bored he challenges random people to 'recreational' spars, grows peculiar arboreal sculptures in annoying places –adamantly refusing to let people cut the resulting monstrosities down– and comes up with new and ever more terrifying jutsu. He's tempted to suggest Hashirama take Mito and Tsunama to visit the Uzumaki for a few weeks. His sister would certainly appreciate the opportunity to see her family and it would keep his brother out from underfoot for a while.

Actually yes, that's an excellent plan; he'll suggest Hashirama take a good number of his bonsai along as gifts as well, or else to sell to people along the way. That will both keep his brother busy and clear space in his miniature garden for fresh bonsai, so that next time Hashirama gets bored he can throw himself into coddling seedlings until they grow into stumpy trees without fretting over displacing any of his existing shrubbery. He's sure Tōka will appreciate the break and it'll make it easier for Yori to visit her husband regularly if Hashirama's not there being loud and overbearing in the name of peace.

* * *

In mid-August the shift in Kita's chakra system occurred exactly on time, pooling her chakra around the gate in her lower abdomen, which prompted her husband to very cautiously request she limit her involvement in the ongoing joint sealing experiments. Not to stop _creating_ the seals, he hastened to add, but let other people take on the task of activating them in the yard. Recognising that reduced access to her chakra made this a very reasonable request given the occasionally explosive results of the Uzumaki-Senju sealing style, Kita had acquiesced; worrying her husband unnecessarily was the last thing she wanted to do.

It is now late September and she is over five months pregnant, with a protruding curve of stomach that adds a degree of difficulty to getting dressed in the mornings. None of her work-wear fits comfortably anymore so plain kimono are the order of the day; that is only going to get more challenging, but Kita doubts she will ever become so round that they no longer fit at all. There is plenty of spare material in a kimono after all.

Of course, her limiting herself to domestic tasks –the less strenuous ones– and leaving the cooking to somebody who is not made horribly nauseous when exposed to certain smells does not persuade her husband to stop coddling her. Not at all; he is relentlessly attentive. Kita allows it because she can see it's not fear or anxiety driving Madara's actions; if it were, that would be easier to throw off. But no, her darling husband is _fascinated_ and _smitten_ and wants to stare at her every hour of the day, wants to surreptitiously commit to memory how she has to adjust her posture and spindle to account for the curve of her abdomen, wants to use his sharingan to watch the incredibly faint movements of her kimono that betray the movements of the unborn child floating in her womb. Any time she is within his field of vision his attention drifts to her, which she would laugh at more if it wasn't so damnably sweet.

Her hormones are addling her brain for her to find this single-minded obsession so gratifying and attractive. Feeling his eyes on her keeps making her weak at the knees, gumming up her brain at awkward moments, and all she can do is look up and make eye-contact _back_ , because at least that way she's not the only one blushing.

A great deal can pass between two sharingan-users in the blink of an eye; Tobirama has probably noticed _something_ but he seems determined to ignore all the more physical implications of marriage as much as possible. It's very polite of him.

Izuna still complains about them being shameless, but he's in the house less now that he has a home of his own, so he gets fewer opportunities to whine. When he's not snorting quietly and smirking gleefully at how smitten his brother is and remains, of course. Thankfully innuendo still soars gracefully over her girls' heads without being noticed at all; Kita rather hopes that state of affairs will continue for another few years. Benten should be a little older before she starts thinking about sex in more than the abstract.

She's reading the unofficial report on the progress being made in laying the village's water pipes and building the sewage system today, sitting on the engawa while it's still warm enough to do so –and more to the point, while she still mostly fits into her coat– and musing happily over how much progress has been made. Kaoru –Sakurajima's housekeeper with two children and black market connections– recommended the surveyor, who was swift, efficient, detailed and allowed Izuna to use the sharingan to obscure his memories of the work afterwards, both to protect the village's integrity and to ensure nobody would target him to extract that information. He was paid generously for the indignity, but Kita suspects the slightly shabby blond with the strong Earth Country accent was honestly grateful to be able to loudly grumble about 'Uchiha paranoia' in every bar along his way home; shinobi from minor clans have obscurity as their best defence, most of them lacking territory of their own and living very much from mission to mission.

The Uchiha's remaining enemies are considerably more affluent and well-connected, and the man doesn't deserve a bad turn like that for a job well done.

There's now a reservoir cut within and beneath the sandstone cliffs, shaped by those Senju proficient in earth jutsu, and their clans have a large reserve of sandstone blocks extruded to even sizes for building with later. There's a solid wooden bridge over the Naka on the road between the mission offices, brick sewer tunnels have been laid in the area between the bridge and the cliffs –complete with capped outlets at regular intervals that look like little chimneys– an oversized and well-sealed treatment plant a little off to one side with an outlet leading to the river and today Tobirama is looking over the valve system which will connect the reservoir to the water pipes he's planning to lay later in the week. He's decided against sinking wells just yet –there are two separate natural hot springs that need to be carefully examined first– so for now their drinking water will be filtered through a cliff's-worth of sandstone.

It should be enough; Kita's sure there's going to be another party to celebrate once the water pipes are laid and both mission offices have running water. There was certainly a party once the first section of sewers were laid and the toilets installed, despite it still being necessary to use a bucket of water to refill the tanks after flushing.

Of course, now the village site has _amenities_ quite a few Uchiha are getting interested in staking a claim on it. A few widows wanting larger farm plots somewhere they don't have to compete with the rest of the clan, a passel of young warriors floating the possibility of a boarding house close by the offices –purely for practicality's sake and to offer accommodation to guests, _nothing_ to do with being able to drink alcohol recreationally away from judgemental maternal eyes– and one of the clan's fish breeders having an eye to expand into supplying the Senju as well, thus requiring more ponds.

The charcoal burners are already clearing trees from the prospective roadway between the new bridge and the daimyo's road ten miles away –the Uchiha clan's new southern boundary– and there's certainly going to be no shortage of charcoal to sell by the time winter arrives. Madara will likely make a point of selling it gradually, so as not to devalue it, and more charcoal also means more ink being made and more black dyes for the silk market.

Tobirama's suggested using some of the sandstone blocks to pave the road with, which is certainly an interesting idea but one that will have to wait until they actually _have_ a road and civilians start using it. They won't know how wide the road needs to be until then; nobody in either clan actually _owns_ a cart, not even the Senju vassals. Kita supposes that when a person has sealing scrolls or umbrella bags, even a hand-cart is rather inefficient. She has suggested that somebody find and measure a larger cart or carriage so they have rough estimates to be generous with, but with the various other more important matters she's not sure anybody ever followed up on that. If they have, the information certainly hasn't reached her.

Kita carefully folds the reports back into the letter case and sets about grinding coloured inks. All her tensan silk is spun and the eggs set aside for next spring, so she has some time to think about new coat designs and what she wants to weave with this year's silk. She paints over a dozen different ideas before she is interrupted.

"Kita?"

It's Yori; Kita hums, not looking up from her painting. Her friend settles on the engawa beside her, little Tokimi tied to her chest and fast asleep.

"This is technically a Homeguard issue, but I'd like to run it past your first," Yori says quietly, leaning in to peek at Kita's various paintings drying on the boards beside her. "Oh, I do like that rooster; the prawns are good too. Is that a swallow?"

Kita hums again; she rather likes the rooster too. She's hoping Tateshina will like it as well, enough to turn it into a damask pattern. The swallows, simple silhouettes, are easy enough for her to work out for herself, but the rooster is far more complicated. It would look very nice in black silk though, bringing to mind the clan's black chickens. "A Homeguard issue?" She prompts gently.

"Hm, yes," Yori agrees, sitting back on her heels with a small sigh. "You're aware already that you're not the only pregnant woman in the clan right now, aren't you Kita?"

"Of course." It's a big clan, for all that almost half the population is younger than fourteen. There are slightly over a hundred women of childbearing age in the clan right now, with 'of childbearing age' being defined as between nineteen and forty years old. Of those about two-thirds are –or were– married with at least one child, most of those not being in the Outguard.

"The _issue_ is that, what with the clan abstaining from missions entirely during the treaty negotiations starting in mid-May and then the big festival celebrating the peace in late June, there are a _lot_ of pregnant women in the clan right now," Yori says a little dryly. "The warriors' wives first – _twenty_ pregnancies, Kita– and then a respectable number of older warriors and other women, including a good number who aren't married. A few young couples are keen to _get_ married while their lineage's kimono will still fit the bride, but a larger number are insisting that no, it was a one-time thing but they are definitely keeping the baby. The older women especially; several of them are widows and I have a feeling at _least_ three snuck out on overnight trading trips _specifically_ to get pregnant."

Kita sets her brush down very carefully, so as not to drip ink everywhere. "What do you want _me_ to do about it, Yori?" A woman who is in good physical health and can manipulate chakra is perfectly able to facilitate conception; it's harder for warriors, who tend to be highly physically fit so their bodies have rather different priorities, but for somebody raised civilian it's very easy to stack the odds. There are no guarantees that the pregnancy will take –in fact it is statistically more likely _not_ to– but conception itself _is_ relatively straightforward.

The Uchiha clan's chief medic looks slightly amused under her frustration. "The _issue_ , Kita dear, is that by late March the clan will be over fifty persons larger, kami willing and no-one miscarries or dies. The clan therefore needs to break new ground for farms in order to _feed_ all these new mouths, as well as provide more spacious housing for the various warriors who are currently sleeping dormitory-style with their fellows out of practicality but will need to leave the Outguard for the duration of their pregnancies at least, if not for the better part of a decade to personally raise those children."

"We're not short on housing; I'm sure renovation and repairs won't take much time."

"It's the _food_ that's the issue Kita, along with the fact that a number of young marriageable clanswomen of good lineages are pregnant and disinclined to marry despite assuring me that yes, they _do_ know who the fathers of their respective children are," Yori retorts tartly. "Ohabari-oba is going to be _peeved_."

True. It is one thing for a minor widow in her thirties to quietly pop out another child a year or five after her husband's passing, quite another for a young lady of twenty from a lineage main family to decide that she doesn't want to be tied down just yet. Outside of a shinobi clan even _getting_ pregnant like that could ruin a woman forever, but the Uchiha are a bit more pragmatic and practical about such things. It happens, and it doesn't make a significant social difference so long as you marry the man in question. Provided he is alive and willing, that is; if he's dead you're in the clear, and if he's unwilling to settle down then the shame falls on _him_ instead. Occasionally fatally, depending on how badly the woman or her relatives take his abdication of responsibility.

"Yori, the clan is sadly short of marriageable men right now," Kita reminds her friend mildly. "It's likely that a lot of those unnamed fathers are either already married, engaged to somebody else, mature widowers with older children or men whose sober preferences run to _other_ men. A lot of people were loosening up significantly in the last hours of the festival, so there were probably a lot of drunken encounters, most of them no more emotionally significant than squad-mates winding down together. And, between you and me, Oba-san could stand to be challenged on that double standard she has; why is a woman seen as ruined for life simply because there is proof she has had sex without being either committed forever or serving the clan, when a man can be seen in every tea house and brothel in Fire Country and be considered all the more virile for it?"

Yori groans, rolling her eyes. "Kita-chan, you are no help at _all_."

"Do any of those unborn children have Senju fathers?"

" _No_ , thank all the thousand kami. Tobirama wasn't interested in anyone at the festival and of those who deliberately went looking for outsiders, none of them bedded a Senju." Yori pauses. "Wait, the Senju don't consider their vassals to count as Senju despite their having Senju blood, so vassals don't use the clan name." It's a possibility then.

"The child of a Senju vassal does not have a right to the Senju name, so would not be covered by the treaty restrictions," Kita replies immediately; it's a very blatant loophole but that's the Senju's fault, not hers or Madara's. They both did their best to protect _their_ clan's children and it's not their fault Hashirama failed to do likewise. Tobirama at least _attempted_ to discuss the Senju vassals during that phase of the treaty, but Hashirama overruled him so Senju vassals are not subject to the same protections as those of that clan who carry its name.

Yori sags. "Oh thank goodness; I'll check back there, but still, no treaty babies. Well not _officially_ anyway."

If the Senju don't reinstate their civilian clansmen when they settle in the village they're going to find their clan shrinking rather swiftly; the whole _point_ of the village is to shift to a more peaceful lifestyle, so that means more civilians and more children of current Senju choosing not to fight. If not fighting means losing the right to the Senju name, the clan is going to find itself _significantly_ diminished in the next few decades. First the ones who don't want to fight, then the less skilled seeking better-paying and less dangerous work, and in a few generations the Senju would be whittled down to just their main family. Give or take, depending on the rate of attrition.

Then again, that's _Hashirama's_ problem not hers. "I'll talk to my husband about setting up some more clan farms at the village site," Kita offers, "and to the Cooperative about planting a mulberry copse there as well, to increase our income. I know we're already using all the available garden space, but most of the fruit trees have matured now so there'll be more produce from the orchards next year." Clan farms belong to the Outguard Head, to feed his warriors and their dependents, and are tended by the Outguard whenever they're not on missions; other clansmen also care for them, but they receive a stipend for doing so. A warrior on maternity leave still belongs to the Outguard, and the children of dead Outguard members are fed by the clan coffers until they are old enough to join themselves or find gainful employment elsewhere.

Madara's already talked to the daimyo about the changes in the taxes they'll be paying now they are setting up a 'civilian settlement' on their land, so rather than petitioning the daimyo for every new field they now have blanket permission to break ground, on the condition that all the new fields are part of the new village and the Uchiha allow out-clan civilians to settle freely as well.

* * *

The first set of water pipes are now laid, the sewers and purification plant work perfectly and a surprisingly large number of Uchiha are already busy clearing ground for farmland on the village site, which has prompted about half the Senju's vassals to do likewise. The mixed group of farmers and warriors are removing trees and digging up rocks in three separate locations, all talking and singing together as though they haven't been enemies for longer than either clan has records for.

Well, Tobirama _assumes_ the Uchiha's records don't go back that far, but he could be mistaken. He doesn't actually _know_ how long the feud lasted, after all. The Uchiha do have records dating back almost a thousand years, but to his understanding those earlier documents are not well-defined enough to qualify as an ordered history, so if the information does exist it's not accessible. His own knowledge of Senju family history is rather scant as his education focused on the present not the past, but once he is home again he does intend to investigate the clan records to see what hints he can glean from them.

However the problem with the basic amenities being completed is that Tobirama no longer has an excuse to leave the Uchiha compound most days, which means he is once again required to be a good guest and spend time in the Clan Hall. Around Madara, who is hovering over his wife and behaving in a distinctly obsessive and lovesick manner despite being several years married. If the man were emulating Hashirama's loud declarations of affection Tobirama could tune them out, but Madara is not a particularly effusive man in that respect. Instead he _stares_ , chakra focused and intent, lightly touching his wife every time he's within arm's reach and sharingan appearing regularly despite Kita never doing anything particularly interesting.

That tight, unwavering focus makes Tobirama's battle instincts _itch_. He has no idea how Kita can stand it; it's worse than the way Madara would monopolise Hashirama on the battlefield, worse even than the intensity the Outguard Head directed at his own brother after the first hostage exchange when Izuna was newly healed. But Kita seems to enjoy the attention, occasionally exchanging a few words or glancing up with her own eyes red and spinning for an instant of knowing eye-contact that leaves them both flushed and twitchy.

Tobirama is _not_ thinking about how their scents change when they do that, or what it implies. It is _not his business_. Thankfully Madara has no shortage of work of his own to be getting on with –he personally vets the Uchiha's missions after they've passed through the new mission offices, trains with the Outguard several times a week and is surprisingly heavily involved with the clan's pottery as well– so Tobirama is not forced to retreat to his room in order to avoid the tension dancing on his nerves. Well, not _often_ at least.

Today Madara made breakfast rather than any of Kita's sisters or other helpers –which was a little awkward, partly because the food was of higher quality than Tobirama had expected the man to be capable of but mostly because this is yet another thing he does not expect a man who is Clan Head in all but name to _do_ – and then, as the twins gather the bowls to help six-year-old Kinu wash up, starts a conversation about the peace treaty. Specifically that bit about retraining the Senju warriors according to some of the Uchiha Outguard specifications.

"Would you like to talk to some of my senior warriors concerning investigative training, potentially observing a few squads on missions as well?"

"I would, yes," Tobirama agrees cautiously, "but I was hoping there might be some mission reports I could read first, so that I have some idea of what to look for and the kind of questions to ask. Provided of course that there are mission reports which do not contain confidential Uchiha information." Or information relating to Uchiha clients that the Outguard Head wishes to keep private.

Madara frowns thoughtfully, staring blankly into the middle distance. "There are reports, yes; I'll put together a selection for you, as well as a few intelligence documents. Nothing clan-specific, as agreed, but there's plenty relating to local politics in various areas of Fire Country that showcases our investigative model. A few petty cases too, where the client was less than straightforward about their objectives…" He gets to his feet. "Join me in my office, if you would."

Tobirama rises to his feet and follows; Kita is now quietly discussing weaving with Benten, who he has been excitedly informed by Azami will be twelve soon. Kita's sisters who help her with the clan coats, Naka and Midori, are also participating, mostly with odds and ends on dyeing silk as opposed to cotton, different weave types and what they are used for and the relevance of thread weight. Naka turned seventeen on the first of October –not that Tobirama knew about that until Tateshina, the oldest of Kita's younger sisters, arrived at the clan hall on the day with a large tray of Naka's favourite sweets– and is a master in her own right, but she still visits regularly because all the official templates for the embroidered silk-lined coats that the Uchiha main lineages wear are in Kita's keeping.

He's not been inside Madara's office since before the treaty; there are now considerably more scrolls and letter cases stacked on the shelves and piled in racks, which is to be expected. He may still be a hostage, but now there is an assumption of mutual goodwill between their clans. Tobirama is expected to be a respectful guest and not pilfer the study for information he and the Senju could take advantage of, and in return Madara is expected to grant him greater liberties and access to non-sensitive materials.

"This," Madara waves at the shelves behind the desk, "is all poetry and other clan literature; you can borrow whatever, but be aware that none of it is easily replaced. None of it's secret or confidential though; we keep that elsewhere."

Aware that he is being given a rare opportunity to broaden his knowledge of Uchiha clan culture, Tobirama browses the indicated shelving as Madara turns elsewhere for the mission reports and intelligence documents. The Outguard Head is likely going to skim a good number of scrolls before handing any over, to ensure nothing confidential is revealed, so the opportunity to select some recreational reading is most welcome.

He has picked out two slim volumes of poetry and five scrolls containing what appear to instructional and amusing historical anecdotes by the time Madara speaks again.

"Here, these should provide a good grounding in different types of missions and mission adjustments."

Tobirama already has his arms full, but Madara has considerately stacked the scrolls into a box so he just has to add what he is holding to it and accept them. "Thank you, Madara-san; I will return these as soon as I have read them."

"Feel free to borrow more poetry and novels whenever you like," his host says easily. "Kita has more, but there's a lot of sheet music on her shelves as well and I'm not sure whether you're interested in that kind of thing."

Tobirama isn't, although it is true that learning to play a musical instrument _would_ be a challenging, time-consuming and eventually rewarding peace-time activity. Mito plays the biwa, usually while singing classical narrative poems, but she knows all manner of sea shanties and less formal Uzumaki pieces as well and can sometimes be persuaded to share them. Well, with him at least; it's possible that she plays the songs of her childhood more often with Baasan and his various aunts.

"I will consider it," Tobirama replies politely, shifting his grip on the box and bowing over it before retreating back to his room. He has responsibilities to see to before he can indulge himself with recreational reading.

Kita and her sisters have already moved two looms into the Clan Hall's main reception room; that implies that Madara has no official commitments today and the twins are occupied elsewhere. He can hear voices in the kitchen too; Naka and Benten, he decides, although little Kinu-chan might be there as well. They are talking about dyeing, so he would do well to remain in his room today; the smell is likely to carry if he settles in the dining room and neither of the ladies at their looms will want him in their space.

* * *

October is almost over, the weather is turning cold and the Uchiha clan is down to its last round of missions. Madara is not technically _on_ a mission however; Kita is having cravings. She's been having cravings since late August, honestly, but this is the first time they've got outlandish and inaccessible: his beloved and embarrassed wife is craving saltwater eel, tokoroten and water chestnut cake. Which is why Madara is running cross-country in the dark, heading south-east towards Hyūga territory as fast as he is able; eel and tokoroten are common seaside dishes, but water chestnuts only grow in the southernmost peninsula of Fire and are more commonly found in Tea Country, so for all three the Hyūga are the best place to go. Madara is in fact thinking of buying the cake outright; water chestnut cake is a popular street food in Hyūga territory, so he may well be able to get it freshly-made at a market in the morning.

Eel is likely to be trickier at this time of year –he may have to travel all the way to the coast– but tokoroten is a staple in the south east, so he may well be able to buy the dried alga in whichever town he stops at first. He's not sure whether Kita will want to eat them hot or cold, sweet, sour or spicy –she may want several flavours at once, there've certainly been all kinds of oddly seasoned combinations eaten at meals in the past months– so he'll just get what ingredients the clan lacks.

Soon the ground will freeze and all the building will stop for the year, but both clans have finished clearing away trees and rocks for the new fields and there are storehouses built nearby for tools and crops to be stored in the coming year. There's also a minshuku, a boarding house with a communal eating hall, on the corner of the road leading past the offices to the river and the road parallel to the river which the farm storehouses back onto. One of the clan's crippled former Outguard is running the place with a widow and her two young children; Izuna has money on them marrying within the year.

There's talk of building a ryokan in the coming year, since there are proper hot springs to build one around, but the issue of who the ryokan would _belong_ to is a little tricky. After all, if one clan 'claims' one of the hot springs, does that mean the other clan can monopolise the other one? Madara's leaning towards turning the larger of the springs into a public bathhouse first and hiring a civilian from a neighbouring town to manage it; that way everybody has access to hot water whenever they like, so that nobody fusses when the other spring gets turned into a private resort to bring outside money into the village.

If the ryokan is large and lavish enough then nobles will stop here while touring Fire Country's many other hot springs, but for that to work the village needs to be an actual _village_ rather than a meagre handful of buildings, a bunch of fields, a bridge and a dirt road leading to a cliff face. They definitely need a schooling complex, but Madara's hoping to postpone that for a bit. Until more of the clan is living in the village, at least; he's sure he's got at least another year there, maybe even two.

It also needs to be aesthetically pleasing with lots of traditional architecture and beautifully laid-out gardens, but that's next year's problem. He's sure Hashirama will be delighted to plan a few public green spaces if he suggests it, and they can include food plants so the space is useful as well as beautiful.

He's asked Kita and Tobirama about whether it's possible to create some additional hot springs with seals, either by diverting the water table through an appropriate patch of rock or just by heating the water themselves, but that's not exactly something they can experiment with locally and his wife is so _very_ pregnant now that he's not comfortable with her experimenting at _all_. She can't really run away if something goes wrong.

There's a lot to _go_ wrong where hot rock and cold water are concerned.

* * *

Tobirama is a little concerned by quite how _many_ Uchiha ladies are pregnant right now. Yes, he'd rather expected _some_ pregnancies, considering the truce and how young most of the warriors are, but _this_ many? It's easier to ask who _isn't_ pregnant.

The Uchiha clan is already three times larger than the Senju; at this rate the difference is only going to rise.

Admittedly the Senju are rather more generational a clan than the Uchiha, who have large numbers of people of every age –or should do, discounting the dead– so their demographics are different to his own clan, where over half their number are between thirty-five and fifteen. The next generation are only just starting to be born, but if there is to _be_ a next generation then a lot of his fellow warriors need to start thinking about taking advantage of the peace to court, marry and settle down.

Tobirama knows there are certainly a dozen or so warriors who will already be planning weddings with their lovers and sweethearts and easily twice as many more who would _like_ to marry, if they can find someone to settle down with. There won't be anybody looking at the Uchiha, not so soon and not with all the scrutiny and tension the treaty promises to inflict on those who marry across that particular boundary, but the Senju have intermarried with their vassals many times before, as well as with other civilians and various smaller shinobi clans. Tōka's mother is a Kurama, Tobirama's own mother was a Hatake –not exactly a small clan, but not a large one either– and there's always the Uzumaki.

Although most Uzumaki tend to expect their spouse to move to Uzushio; it's a little different for Clan Heads, of course, but Tōka's only surviving brother _did_ move to Uzushio when the redhead he was so smitten with made it a condition of their marriage. Then again, Tokyōma had always been looking for a way out. He hates fighting –admittedly he's always been pretty bad at it, delicate and neurotic where his sister is sturdy and practical, which is why he was trained as a medic– hates killing anything, even fish, and has always been much happier with his books and helping out in the clan gardens. If he hadn't left to marry an Uzumaki he probably would have married a vassal and abandoned the Senju name entirely, no matter how much that would have shamed both him and his father when he is Uncle Tokonoma's heir. It's bad enough that he's now an Uzumaki in all but name.

Then again, that stubborn refusal to care about how his ambitions and actions reflect on those around him is very Senju _indeed_.

Tobirama's not sure if Tōka has any new nieces or nephews, either extant or expected; she's not mentioned any. Then again, he hasn't _asked_ either. He should ask.

Which reminds him: he has a stack of letters to read and reply to that arrived this morning, brought by one of Katsuyu's smaller incarnations which appeared on his foot in a puff of chakra smoke as he was walking out of the bathhouse. An unexpected hazard of the Uchiha's domestic shielding is that messenger summons cannot locate a person past them, so Tobirama has had to make a habit of going for walks at specific hours of the evening and resigned himself to being waylaid in the mornings either before or after bathing. Carrying a slug as large as a fully-grown cat across his shoulders as he walks indoors to dress earned him some odd looks the first time, but nobody has ever attempted to stop him.

Which is a relief; the Uchiha are clearly aware that the slugs are a signature summons of the Uzumaki clan but are not attempting to prevent him from communicating with them. That says a lot more about their dedication to peace than the treaty itself does: the Uzumaki are only Senju allies, not Uchiha ones, and yet Tobirama's correspondence is unhindered and unquestioned. Admittedly his _specific_ Uzumaki correspondent is Mito, but his hosts do not know that. Although Toshiko and Azami are both intensely curious and have asked him a lot of questions about summons as a result.

Washing slime off his yukata is turning into a regular chore; he is grateful for his laundry jutsu and the Uchiha's various drying techniques. At least Katsuyu is prepared to limit herself to sitting in a laundry tub and nibbling on salad leaves in between deliveries, rather than track slime all over the Uchiha Clan Hall's floors. Slug slime is not the easiest substance to shift and while it wouldn't be so challenging to scrub off the engawa, tatami are porous and would need to be replaced entirely.

This morning Tobirama has eaten breakfast with his hosts, trained outside with the Uchiha Squad he went on six missions with –before the weather turned and requests stopped coming in– and assisted Uchiha Inaba with an aeration problem in his fish-farming ponds, so has an hour or so of the early afternoon to write letters in. Mainly because Kita's daughters are napping at this time of day, so he will be entirely undisturbed.

"Good afternoon, Tobirama-san."

"Good day to you as well, Katsuyu-san."

Katsuyu waves her eyestalks at him as he enters the room and closes the shōji behind him, but does not speak further as he settles on the cushion before the battered desk and flicks through the wedge of envelopes and small scrolls she brought him.

Mito and Hashirama are both in Uzushio still –or were the last he knew; they might be on their way back now– since his sister took his advice and prevailed upon her husband to take her to visit her family while peace means that the Senju clan is not dependent on his battlefield leadership. Tsunama went with them, along with Baasan, Aunt Tanka and Uncle Tokonoma –who wanted to meet his granddaughter– leaving the clan in Tōka's capable hands. Well, hers and Aunt Ōka's, since Aunt Ōka is the Senju's Head Medic and extremely formidable in her own right. A few others have also gone, clansmen with Uzumaki cousins or in-laws, and there's apparently been a lot of trading discussions going on there in the background.

Mito has been writing every week –sometimes twice a week– and including letters to Kita on fūinjutsu, as well as letters from a range of other Uzumaki relatives with an interest in sealing. _Those_ letters have been addressed to Tobirama rather than Kita, which he is a little suspicious of. Ladies write to one-another as a matter of course, so Mito taking the opportunity of the treaty to introduce Kita to her Uzumaki relatives by proxy would not be at all unusual, but for those ladies to be writing to _him_ , even on the subject of fūinjutsu…

Tobirama has always known that marriage is _expected_ of him. He's also always known Baasan will probably end up arranging it, seeing as he has never experienced a personal preference for any woman over another and Hashirama clearly can't be bothered to make a political match for him, but now the Senju have peace he's a little more ambivalent. He doesn't _need_ to marry as soon as possible, the matter of succession is no longer precariously balanced on his brother's only child and with the war ended he is no longer utterly rushed off his feet. He _could_ court someone, if he wanted to. He _could_ take the time to look for someone he gets along with, rather than settling for a woman of his grandmother's choosing. Baasan knows him well and would not pick somebody he would clash with, but he'd like a wife whom he can talk about his responsibilities and interests _with_ , rather than just a dutiful bride to cook his meals and bear his children whom he can only talk _at_.

That does not mean he is not talking fūnjutsu with Mito's various cousins; it _is_ one of his interests, after all, and they're all very curious about what new things he's discovering while trying to understand Kita's sealing style. He's not attempted any of her embroidered seals yet, but as winter draws in he suspects he may well end up doing so. He's never sewn anything more complicated than his own clothing when the fabric tears in the field, so that will be interesting.

He has already given Kita her letter, so he starts with finding his letter from Mito. Hashirama has written once or twice, but Tobirama suspects he's mostly exchanging messages with Tōka about clan things and otherwise being distracted by his in-laws. Possibly even by his son.

Except that today there _is_ a letter from Hashirama; Tobirama opens that first. The first lines make it very clear _why_ his brother has written to him: Mito has finally admitted to being pregnant and Hashirama is desperate to babble happily at as many people as possible. Tobirama skims the letter in search of any substantial information, finds nothing and sets the paper aside; he can deal with that later.

Mito's letter is far more detailed and coherent, beginning with a continuation of her updates on Tsunama's various new friendships and discoveries, following into bits and pieces of what various other relatives are doing –including a few subtle details regarding trade possibilities– before delving into her own personal news. Yes, she is a little over three months pregnant; the child is due in mid-April. She's fine, surprisingly little morning sickness, and Hashirama is being 'very attentive' which significantly reduces the likelihood of a late miscarriage.

It's never exactly been _discussed_ , but Tobirama is aware that Uzumaki and Senju women occasionally have trouble carrying to term, and that unless their husband's chakra is significantly stronger than their own they tend to run to girls. It's why Senju warriors often marry the daughters of their vassals or the occasional civilian, as well as it being a factor in their not offering their own daughters in alliance marriages. He's eavesdropped –more or less accidentally– on various medical discussions when he was younger, and the general presumption is that if a lady's husband is 'attentive' during the early stages of pregnancy then they are less likely to miscarry; Tobirama suspects it might relate to chakra exposure in some way, but he's hardly been able to experiment. He's unlikely to _ever_ be able to experiment, in fact.

Mito then changes the subject to ask questions about what he has been doing, referencing a few things he mentioned in his last letter and continuing the ongoing discussion on adapting Kita's so-called 'umbrella seals' –not at all the same as the 'umbrella bag' seals– for Uzumaki script –if it is possible– or else commissioning some Uchiha apprentices' assistance. The Uzumaki live on an island, so damp is a persistent problem, and a seal which essentially forces a collection of minimally connected small objects to act like a single large object is very fascinating, even without the added impermeable properties. Seeing as Mito wasn't here when Kita introduced him to this particular seal, Tobirama has had to describe it and include copies of his notes in order to get her perspective, which he is sure his sister is sharing with certain of her cousins.

All this new fūinjutsu is apparently giving certain Uzumaki _ideas_ ; Mito includes an aside which all but guarantees that there will be a clan delegation returning with the Senju in a week or so to set up a basic non-interference treaty with the Uchiha and arrange terms for 'broadening horizons in a scholarly setting.' The Uchiha are likely to agree; most of the Uzumaki's business is with the eastern coastline and associated island chains, including a large proportion of Water Country, so they are hardly competing for contracts. He's not even sure the Uchiha are still offering fūinjutsu commissions to their long-term clients.

The rest of the letter is a scattering of references to various other relatives, including an Uzumaki Chika –her personal name is spelled 'blood whirlpool'– whom Tobirama suspects is actually Aunt Tanka's daughter, going by the number of times they'd been mentioned in the same sentence over the past weeks. Aunt Tanka is the youngest of his aunts, a warrior in her own right and has always flatly refused to marry; when his father had _attempted_ to marry her off when she was twenty she'd run away to Uzushio for eighteen months, after which he'd given up on her. If she had an illegitimate daughter in that time, that could explain why Father had dropped the issue; it's hard to marry off a woman who has an Uzumaki lover, even though Tobirama suspects Aunt Tanka cares very little for her daughter's father, who is one of the Uzumaki Clan Head's younger cousins and married with more children of his own, children that he is reportedly raising alongside his eldest and illegitimate daughter.

His probable-cousin Chika is twenty, but thankfully not writing him letters so is hopefully _not_ one of the people Baasan is vetting as a spouse candidate for him. He _has_ written to Baasan to say he'd like to be allowed time to try and select a wife himself before allowing her free range, but Tobirama recognises that she's not going to stop investigating options just because any wedding would be several years off; all the more reason for her to start presenting candidates early, in fact, in case he decides he actually likes one of them enough to be proactive.

Tobirama is hoping to get until he is thirty. Six years is plenty of time to find someone tolerable in, and by then he'll have several other marriageable cousins so Baasan might well be distracted into overlooking his single state for a few years more. If he can't find a wife inside eight years he'll bow to the inevitable, but by then Hashirama will hopefully have managed to produce another son or two so there'll be less pressure on him to contribute to the next generation. He won't be able to get away with _not_ marrying, unfortunately; the price of being born into the Senju main line. Both of his uncles who lived past their majority married, and for all that Uncle Fusuma died barely three years after marrying he _did_ have two sons. Tobirama's cousin Midōma died last year, brutally cut down by Madara along with his two mission partners, but Hattōma is twenty-one now and Aunt Yuta is likely encouraging him to find a nice girl to settle down with. Provided he doesn't already have a sweetheart; Tobirama does his best to ignore his cousins' social lives whenever possible.

Mito's letter read in its entirety, Tobirama moves on to the letters from various fūinjutsu-interested Uzumaki. Uzumaki naming sense is turning out to be rather particular; he'd never have guessed any of these ladies spelled their names with _these_ kanji if he'd only ever heard them spoken or seen them written in hiragana.

Depending on what questions they have and what ideas they've come up with since last time, he might end up writing one or other of them individual letters rather than just a collective reply like he has been mostly doing so far. At least the weather is cool enough now that he can start using his own summons to make the deliveries; shed fur is much easier to clean up than slug slime.

* * *

"So, what names are you thinking of, aneki?"

Kita doesn't look up from her weaving even for a second; she's spending a whole lot more time at the loom now, as in the later stages of pregnancy it's actually more comfortable than trying to embroider, paint or spin. Mainly because the loom is self-supporting and the fabric sits higher than the bloated curve of her belly.

"Traditional ones," she replies dryly.

Her sister giggles quietly. "That was never in doubt, Kita-nee; you _are_ married to Madara after all. But I want to know which ones you're thinking of, so I can think of different ones for my little one." Tateshina is pregnant too, due in February, and she does have a point.

"What are _you_ thinking of, imōto?"

"Neishi or Shimagare for a boy," her sister says placidly, "and maybe Nyū for a girl. But Neishi would be just as good for a girl."

Kita hums, barely needing to look down at her hands. Her current project is nowhere near as challenging as Tateshina's, although her sister is nonetheless working faster than she is. Tateshina is truly a master weaver.

"I'm not sure really. Mikuni maybe, or Shiomi. Shiomi would be good for a girl. Or maybe Takahara or Togakushi. Adatara's a good name, too, and so is Iide." Not recently-used names in either her own lineage or her husband's, but not attached to unpopular ancestors either. "I don't think I want to use Minami or Fushimi." Their mother has been dead a while, but Kita would rather not recycle the name for her own daughter. Not while Grandma is alive at least. She might for a son –most traditional Uchiha names are unisex– but not for her firstborn.

None of her children will be called Naka. Not even if she ends up having ten of them.

"Usu would be nice as well," Tateshina continues idly, hands dancing across her loom, "and I've always liked Biei. Just Biei, not Biei-Fuji; Megata's another good name and so is Takara, especially for girls."

"One at a time," Kita says dryly. "You've got plenty of time for more babies later." Right now she doesn't even want to _think_ about getting pregnant again, not with how happy the baby in her belly is to bounce on her bladder and kick her in the stomach. It's not constantly active, thankfully, but it gets very energetic right after mealtimes and that is a bit much. She's got about six weeks left and she's very much looking forward to being the only person living inside her own skin.

"Of course." Her sister lapses into comfortable silence for a while, although it can't really be called 'silence' when the room is full of the sound of silk and loom. "Where is your husband today, Kita-nee?"

"Making sure those warriors who come of age in the New Year can all walk up scree without dislodging half the hillside," Kita replies, quoting what Madara said to her over breakfast. "With Toshi and Azami all bundled up and watching, because there's nothing like a toddler audience to convince a gaggle of budding warriors to be extra cautious so as not to embarrass themselves." Well, that and her darling husband _adores_ their two little girls, so is willing to come up with all kinds of excuses to take them out on short excursions now they're sturdy enough to do so. Kita has no objections whatsoever; in fact she's delighted he's so determined to be a good father to them.

The front of her kimono shifts slightly in response to a high kick from the unborn in her gut. _Again_. Kita can't _wait_ to have the baby outside rather than inside; then her husband can start contributing to its care as well, rather than stressing over her swollen ankles, interrupted sleep and increasingly frequent emotional moments while beating himself up internally over both his complicity in creating the cause of her discomfort and his inability to do anything meaningful about her difficulties.

Kita would like her husband to recognise that the assistance he is offering _is_ meaningful, but Madara isn't used to supporting others from the sidelines like she is. He's a battlefield shinobi, accustomed to facing threats head-on rather than sitting far behind the lines, reminding himself that he is doing what he can and should not feel guilty for what he cannot do. That is usually _Kita's_ role and Madara is very visibly finding the reversal unbearable, no matter how brief it is.

She may possibly have to hit her husband over the head with words so that he settles. She does need to _find_ the words first, though. Weaving is not as soothing as patchwork, but it is familiar enough to give her the time and space to think about what words to use and how to say them.

* * *

"Brother-in-law, please sit on my husband for me."

Madara drops his empty bowl and chopsticks as Izuna leaps into action, pinning him to the tatami and swiftly tying his arms behind his back with a length of battle-wire that really should _not_ have been hidden in his sleeve. They're at peace! They're at _home_! What excuse does his little brother have for this kind of behaviour?!

"As you wish, dearest sister-in-law," Izuna chirps viciously, firmly securing Madara's hands so he can't move his fingers into handsigns without losing them.

Kita calmly picks up the remnants of breakfast and hands them off to Benten, who is watching the scuffle with wide eyes. "Take them to Tateshina for washing, Benten-chan, and take Tobirama-san with you; I will come and fetch you when it is time for your tea ceremony lesson."

Tobirama is sitting perfectly still on the far side of the iori, eyes twitching from Izuna to Kita and back again like he's trying to work out what's going on so as to not be in the path of whatever jutsu is undoubtedly coming. He is very pointedly _not_ looking at Madara, which is either good manners or a faintly paranoid desire to not be a target for vengeance later, once Madara frees himself and inevitably retaliates.

Madara would put money on paranoia. Then again, Tobirama's not really _accustomed_ to Uchiha sibling scuffles and how fierce they get sometimes; they don't exactly do that kind of thing where outsiders can see. These days it feels like half his arbitration duties are taken up by making sure his warriors don't overdo it competing with close relatives and best friends; peace _is_ good for his clan, but most of them seem to be compensating for the sudden drop in external pressure by coming up with new and creative ways to annoy _one_ - _another_ into violence.

He sighs and flops limply forwards onto the tatami, twitching his fingers cautiously as Tobirama allows himself to be ushered out of the room by Benten –at least the twins have already dashed off for their third reading lesson with Inemi-sensei, the classroom still new enough to be exciting rather than an unwelcome chore– and waits patiently despite his little brother still sitting smugly on his thighs, radiating glee.

Kita shuffles around the fireplace and settles next to him, hands caressing his hair and tilting his shoulder demandingly; Madara obligingly rolls onto his side and makes eye contact as Izuna shuffles off him, bouncing out of the room and considerately closing the shōji behind him. The head-start won't save his brother and neither will Kita having provided the impetus; his wife only asked that Izuna _sit_ on him, not that he be tied up.

"Husband," Kita murmurs, her chakra fond and wry and faintly amused as his undignified predicament, slumping backwards on her heels to compensate for the heavy bulge of her abdomen.

"Wife," Madara replies, his heart tight with all the tangled feelings her pregnancy inspires. Love and terror, anxiety and excitement, serenity and dread. Seeing his wife nurture new life –their _child_ – within her is both the best and worst experience of his entire _life_.

"How many times have you left me behind for the battlefield, husband?" His wife asks him quietly. "How many times have you taken your life into your hands and gambled, trusting your strength and skill to see you through?"

Madara doesn't know how to answer; how can he _count_ them when they stretch back into infinity, blending together in an endless parade of memories alternately time-smeared and sharingan-sharp?

"Did you see me worrying myself sick in your absence, beloved?" Kita asks him gently. "No, you did not. Yes, I worried; I love you after all. But I also trusted. Trusted you to know your limits, trusted your fellow warriors to support you, trusted your strength and your skill. And you have never disappointed me. So will you trust me, husband, as I walk to my own battlefield? Trust my strength and skill and knowledge, and that of my companions?"

Madara shivers. His brilliant, deadly wife, pinpointing the exact nature of his unease and dragging it into daylight, then disarming it with a few well-chosen words… Oh, he loves her so _much._ And she's right; it doesn't really matter that he doesn't understand what she's facing and that he cannot personally offer his assistance. What _matters_ is that he trusts her. Trusts his wife to know her body, know her limits and to know when to seek assistance.

He trusts Kita.

"I trust you," he admits softly, feeling the truth of it settle into his muscles and loosen the knot at the base of his skull. He doesn't know what to do, doesn't like that there's nothing he _can_ do, but in this he can follow his wife's example. He can trust. He can take care of other matters, to reduce the pressure on her. He can listen and be supportive.

He can stop fretting and stressing, which is surely not helping the situation at all.

"I'm sorry," he adds abashedly.

Kita finger-combs his hair out of his face and meets his eyes, gaze steady and boundlessly fond. "The hardest lesson is learning what you can't do and accepting that you are not responsible for what falls beyond your influence," she informs him solemnly. "Do not feel guilty over that which you cannot control, husband; you're not a god and arrogance is terribly unbecoming."

Madara is abruptly and forcefully reminded of Kita's cool refusal to make combat seals for his father back when she was a child. There'd been something steady and unbending in her posture as she coolly defied him that time in his office as Madara watched, a sense of mild amusement that the man staring her down would assume he had the power to make her do anything at all, much less something she didn't _want_ to do.

His father had threatened her, and Kita had lowered her eyes, replying with a demure, "Tajima-sama will of course do as he pleases," thereby utterly divorcing her actions from his. It was true that his father had _indeed_ done as he pleased; however Kita had never once allowed his actions to cow her into submitting to him. By clarifying that she had no control over him, she had also made it all-but-explicit that he could not coerce her into pleasing him with the illusion that doing so would enable her to modify his behaviour in any way. Her actions did not dictate his and his choices were entirely his own. And therefore so were hers.

Madara knew his father had been both delighted and infuriated by that tidy and unassailable rebuttal and had incorporated it into his later negotiations, both with clients and with other clans. Its effectiveness in those settings had prompted further annoyance, but his father had not pushed Kita further. Occasionally nudged, yes, but not _pushed_.

Madara cannot _make_ his wife do anything, and neither can she make _him_ to anything. His actions are his own, for good or ill, but so are hers.

He cannot bend his wife to his will. He will _never_ be able to bend his wife to his will. She has her own will and it is no less unyielding than his, for all that she is more than ready to collaberate him on any and all matters.

Recognising his inability to control the battlefield has always been a source of poorly-buried fear, so why is it that _here_ it makes him feel so _light_?

"I will not, Kita-koi," he promises huskily, heart full of dizzying _awe_ at the glorious power and wisdom of the women he was fortunate enough to marry. His wife hums, eyes darkening and cheeks flushing lightly, then leans forwards so as to untie him.

Once his hands are free he is going to kiss his wife and reassure her that he's learned his lesson, and then he will hunt down Izuna so as to rub mud in his annoying little brother's hair for trussing him up like a target at breakfast time. In front of Benten and _Senju Tobirama_ , no less.

* * *

Tobirama has been living with the Uchiha for over six months and he does now understand viscerally well _why_ an exchange of hostages is so vital a part of the treaty. He has lived side-by-side with his former enemies for more than half a year –more like three-quarters of a year counting that first uneasy month and the treaty process itself– played with their children, joined them in training, helped with the necessities of survival such as tending to food crops and even been permitted to assist in healing their sick and injured, and if the treaty falls apart a week after he returns home he _won't_ be able to turn around and continue as the Senju's strategic and tactical leader. He _can't_ , not without destroying a part of himself he doesn't particularly want to lose. He's _compromised_ and there's no going back.

He can't regret it. Not when his brother will be so delighted by the change. Not when he's happier _now_ than he's been since before Haha died. Yes, he misses Mito and Tōka and his other relatives, Tsunama and the other children especially since they couldn't visit, but if staying with the Uchiha indefinitely became a condition of the ongoing treaty he wouldn't _mind_ it.

He's going to be going home in less than a week, the date set for the morning after the Festival of the Seven Herbs, and all he can think of is how he's going to have to make an effort to visit often. To talk seals with Kita, to discuss medicine and healing techniques with Yori and her apprentices, to spar with Izuna –a new and startlingly gratifying experience– to read to Azami and Toshiko, to discuss economics and the political landscape with Madara –who is far more knowledgeable about both than Tobirama had realised was possible– and talk about Uchiha training regimes with Atago's squad, who have –bafflingly– all decided he is their friend now and keep dragging him away to meet family members, include him in meals and invite him to their own sparring sessions.

He only knows Atago and his squad –Zaō the veteran, Toyoni the single father of three, Saru who is one of the few Uchiha women of marriageable age currently _not_ pregnant and the newly-sixteen Take– because after his read-through of the offered historic reports Madara had assigned him to them like he was a package they had to carry with them whenever they left the clan compound for missions.

Tobirama would be more upset about that if he hadn't thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to watch a squad of Uchiha at work. He's only run six missions with them –no doubt carefully vetted beforehand and with the full agreement of the clients in question– but he's seen and learned so _much_ about the Uchiha system. Not least that the Uchiha consider it inefficient to have a teaching mentor to also be responsible for _leading_ a squad; in their eyes those are two separate duties and to combine them is to inevitably compromise the quality of both. Atago –an explosives specialist– _leads_ the squad; Zaō _mentors_ the squad. Take's role is to learn from his elders but he is also the squad's medic, Saru is their negotiator and Toyoni their genjutsu intelligencer. Technically speaking, Zaō is mentoring Toyoni more than Take; the two men share a specialisation that the teenager does not. Take however is newly-fielded, so Zaō is mainly ensuring he has all the many skills the Uchiha consider 'necessary' for their warriors, a year-long supervision after which Take will likely be moved to a different squad, or outright be granted a squad to _lead_ alongside a different mentor if he shows sufficient promise.

It's a very fluid system, shuffling some people around while others remain together for years on end, but it clearly works for all that it is _only_ possible because Madara –who arranges all the squad deployments– knows every last one of his warriors and their skillsets _personally_. How he has the time to do so Tobirama has no idea; clearly the Outguard Head is cheating with his bloodline.

However he's not been on a mission in over a month and a half –none of the Uchiha have– so his more recent interactions with his adoptive squad have been spars, training games, necessary chores and several hunts.

It is those hunts which have led to his current predicament.

"So are you coming or not?" Izuna demands, twisting a bowstring between his fingers to check its integrity before winding it up and sliding it into a leather wallet. There are ten other men in the Clan Hall's reception room, all meticulously going over winter gear, bows, arrows and boar spears. Madara is not among them; he's out by the mews with his falconer, deciding which birds to take. It's the first hunt of the New Year and being invited is very definitely an honour, but it is also a heavy responsibility: if things go wrong, the more superstitious Uchiha may decide that his presence was a bad omen.

Boar-hunting is chancy at the best of times, but husbands with pregnant wives are supposedly luckier and every man here –other than Izuna and Tobirama– is both from a major lineage and has a pregnant wife at home. Tobirama even knows all their names: rebinding a long spear on the far side of the room is Uchiha Takao, Kita's brother-in-law and son of the previous Toyotama Lineage Head –although Tobirama has no idea _why_ that Headship recently shifted to Kita; he doesn't think it's anything to do with her being married to Madara– and all the other men are equally highly placed. Uchiha Oshiki –who glares at him less nowadays– is the Yomotsushikone Head despite only being seventeen and was one of the young men hurriedly marrying a pregnant lover back in the autumn; his wife is a year older than he is and a steadying influence, which Tobirama knows Madara is grateful for because Oshiki is another of the Uchiha clan's Mangekyō users.

Tobirama is not entirely sure _what_ awakens the highest tier of the Uchiha bloodline, but going by Madara's attitude towards it, it isn't a good thing for either the individual or the clan generally. The Outguard Head personally supervises those warriors who have it, with lots of private training sessions, invitations to the Clan Hall for meals and meetings and all manner of concessions. Concessions that nobody else in the clan begrudges in the slightest, which is even more telling.

None of which is exactly relevant to Tobirama's current predicament. He can't even cry off based on not having appropriate clothing: Tōka made sure his entire _wardrobe_ was delivered to him after the treaty finalisation, so he has a complete set of winter furs as well as proper snow boots.

"What would my role be on this excursion?"

Izuna eyeballs him knowingly; it is uncomfortable to be so transparent, but at least his habitual opponent is not dismissing his concerns. "Technically this is a boar hunt," the current Uchiha Heir says patiently, "but Kita has expressed more of an interest in venison and game birds, which is what our group will specifically be going after. Hence my brother bringing his birds and my carrying a bow rather than a spear. If we _do_ run into a boar we'll send word to another group; there's no way we can bring one down when Madara and Hiuchi will both have their hands full."

Ah. So a lower-stakes hunt, while still conforming to the spirit of the occasion. Tobirama wonders whether Kita did that on purpose, then sets the speculation aside. It doesn't matter. "Then I would be honoured."

"Good." Izuna's tone makes it clear it _is_ an honour and not one he had any part in extending, for all that he is prepared to bow to his brother's wishes on the matter. "I've heard a lot about your leopard summons; Hidaka saw one of them snatch a grouse on the wing. Will they be joining us?"

Oh dear. Well. "I should check my gear," Tobirama says, excusing himself to do just that.

Half an hour later he is appropriately dressed in suitably warm layers under his Uchiha coat, a borrowed bow slung over one shoulder and a quiver belted at his hip as Madara coos over his hawk-eagle off to one side of the square and the two five-man hunting parties draw lots over who will be going in which direction.

"Tobirama, if you are planning on having your summons participate in the hunt, I would prefer you summon them now so the birds can be acclimatised," the Outguard Head says as one of the men drawing lots pumps his fist and the other slumps dramatically, their comrades cheering or groaning accordingly.

He had hoped to avoid this, but clearly he will just have to suffer; if his leopards hear he went on a hunt _without them_ they will sulk and passive-aggressively make his life difficult until he makes it up to them. Biting his lip, Tobirama smears the blood on his bare fingers and performs the jutsu.

Even before the smoke clears, Tōnari's clear rumble carries right across the square: "So _have_ you finally killed that foolish brother of yours, Tobira-cub? Otoki and Chikaki say you've been living with the Uchiha."

And _this_ is why Tobirama never usually summons Tōnari in front of an audience. "No, Tōnari; I'm acting as a hostage for the Senju clan as part of our peace treaty." Why can't she be quiet and patient like Kyōnari is being? Why does she have to _embarrass_ him with this seditiousness _every single time_ he summons her?

"Yes, I know you are; Shizuki told me that Tōka said that no-good brother of yours didn't even _ask_ first. So why _haven't_ you killed him yet? It's not like he's going to get any better; he's more likely to get worse."

The blood on his fingertips evaporated when he channelled the summoning jutsu through it, so Tobirama doesn't smear blood on his face when he pinches the bridge of his nose. Madara is _laughing_ , loud and free and oddly surprised, which is _acutely humiliating_.

"Tōnari."

"Yes, Tobira-cub?"

"Please stop." He has to say please, or else she will scold him at length for 'disrespecting his elders' and that is not something he is willing to suffer through right now.

The snow leopard huffs, but subsides. Tobirama does not look at Izuna, who is shaking silently and radiating delighted hilarity, or at Madara who quickly handed his bird off to his falconer before his outburst so as to not jar the raptor. All of the other Uchiha are looking anywhere but in his general direction and at such close range he can sense exactly how amusing they are finding the show, even though Madara is the only one actually _laughing_ at him.

"We're going on a hunt," he says firmly, lips twitching wryly as Kyōnari instantly perks up, tail waving eagerly. "We'll be collaborating with Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Izuna and Uchiha Hiuchi," he indicates each man in turn, "and are looking for deer or serow, as well as other small game."

Kyōnari bounces on her paws. "Good, good. When do we start?"

"Immediately," Madara says, voice warm and rich with lingering amusement as he moves the hawk-eagle back onto his wrist. "The plan is to be back not long after sunset, but depending on our success we may return earlier or later. Everybody has their seals on them, so as to notify Headquarters in case of injury or delay and ensure nobody falls out of contact."

"Yes Madara-sama," the other warriors chorus, some of the younger ones reaching for the straps across the front of their coats and the talismans hanging from them. So _that_ is what those seals are for? Falling in behind Izuna as he strides out across the compound towards the mountains to the west, the leopards ambling wide to flank their party, Tobirama tries to formulate an argument that will persuade Madara to let him take a look at something clearly instrumental to the functioning of the Outguard without coming across as entitled or thieving.

It's probably going to take a while; something to push to the back of his mind until after they've successfully caught something.

* * *

Kita had gone to bed last night with a sore back –not at all unusual at this late stage in her pregnancy– and had woken up with one as well. However the abrupt increase in pain levels as she dressed implied that this was actual contractions, not just muscles sore from the constant stretch.

Frankly, Kita is not keen on having her very powerful and rather high-strung husband in earshot while she gives birth. Besides, this hunt has been planned for some time and the clan does need the meat, especially with how many other women are pregnant. All she has to do is stay cheerful until the hunters have left the compound, and then she can send Benten to fetch Grandma and Yori.

Her memories may hold no first-hand experience of pregnancy, but she was well-read in her past life and knows that labour is generally pretty slow the first time around. Her contractions may have started during the night, but she's still rather unlikely to actually give birth before evening.

Yes, it _is_ going to hurt, but she really doubts it will be worse than her past life's debilitating menstrual cramps. That is something she is very glad has _not_ followed her beyond the grave, along with the terrible eyesight and various food allergies. Her new body is a delight, truly, even with several kilograms of baby stuffed inside it.

* * *

As they return from the hunt, laden with a large buck, two serow, five pheasants and three hares, Tobirama gets drawn into a conversation on large game migration patterns with Izuna and Kyōnari, Tōnari bounding ahead alongside Madara and managing to talk quietly enough that Tobirama can't actually hear what they're discussing.

Hopefully nothing embarrassing or confidential; Tōnari was his mother's summons first, so has witnessed a lot of Senju happenings and delivered a lot of letters which, while not exactly dangerous, are very definitely private.

"I suppose it doesn't really matter as much for the Uchiha if you only hunt in winter to supplement what you raise and grow yourself," Kyōnari says as they reach the larger and wider-spaced trees of the Uchiha clan compound's outer boundary, "but if you hunt year-round you have to take care not to deplete any specific animal populations and not to over-hunt in those areas suited for animals to breed in. That's why the Hatake wander rather than having a clan compound; by doing so they don't deplete any specific area, and also make themselves harder to target by enemies."

Tobirama suspects there's more to it than that, but knows Kyōnari won't reveal clan secrets to strangers. Haha raised both her and her sister from cubs well before she married, so they will have spent a decade at least working and hunting alongside the Hatake. She and Tōnari have never revealed much of that to him, nothing beyond wilderness survival strategies and amusing anecdotes from his mother's younger days, and he knows better than to ask. They keep his secrets as well.

However they do not keep Hashirama's, which may make things uncomfortable later depending on what Madara is hearing.

"So what does one hunt in Hatake territory?" Izuna asks, adjusting his grip on the pole that the buck is tied to. Tobirama has the other end resting on his own shoulder and a serow slung across his back; Madara is carrying the other one along with two of the pheasants, Izuna has the hares hanging from his waist and Hiuchi has the rest of the birds. They did catch several more game birds, but the leopards and hawks have eaten their share already.

"Mountain goats, tahr and ibex, mostly," Kyōnari replies amiably, "along with pika and marmots when larger game is scarce. And monkeys if we can get them; monkeys taste delicious." She licks her chops, bounding steps leaving no mark on the snow behind her.

Tōnari is faster, but Kyōnari is the undisputed master of stealth among his summons.

"Do the Hatake ever wander into Lightning Country?"

Tobirama lets his attention drift as he realises that the very excited chakra signature flaring up ahead is Benten, who seems to be waiting for them at the compound main gate. What's that about? He can sense the other two hunting parties –one about a mile distant, moving slowly as though heavily laden, and the other much further away, scattered as though driving an animal up a mountain ahead of them– so maybe she's waiting for their return? Or do the Uchiha have a means of monitoring their squads that is linked to the seals he still can't think of a good reason to ask about?

The trees thin to almost nothing and the gate comes into view; Hiuchi is carrying both the raptors on a frame strapped to his torso, so Madara is free to rush ahead and sweep the twelve-year-old off her feet up into a hug, the serow across his back no hindrance at all.

"Benten!"

She bounces in his arms. "Madara-nii! Niisan, Kita's having the baby!"

Madara vanishes, trailing agitated chakra like a comet. Benten lands on her behind in the snow and huffs, clambering back to her feet and pointedly brushing white off her coat. Tōnari nuzzles her, which proves an effective distraction and in seconds the leopard is being petted and cuddled enthusiastically.

Izuna hums as they reach her, patting the top of the girl's knitted hat in passing. "I have the most devious sister-in-law," he says conversationally once they're out of easy earshot. "I bet she was having contractions when she waved us off this morning and didn't say a word because she didn't want Niisan hovering all day."

That fits with Tobirama's perception of Kita. "Where do we take the game?"

"There'll be people waiting outside Outguard Headquarters," Izuna says carelessly, waving at the large building not far past the gate. "I'll send someone up to the Hall to fetch Madara's share; it's not like Ohabari-oba will let him in to see Kita without making him unload and change into something less smelly first."


	8. Chapter 8

"Report," Madara demands upon arriving at the Uchiha mission office, handing off his coat and belt to the runner on duty so as to properly adjust his armour; he'd been painting when the alarm went off and there hadn't been much time to change in. Over two years since they founded the village and this is the first time the intruder alarms have actually been _used_. Tested yes, but that's not really the same. He's gotten out of practise at putting on his armour at speed, not helped by no longer keeping it all on its stand in his office; he's going to have to think about the risks and benefits and make some decisions there.

"There was a disturbance in the sakura park, Madara-sama," Nagi says briskly. "Kamui's squad investigated and found an unidentified shinobi hanging in a damaged tree; Hashirama was meditating at the other end of the debris trail. He tried to insist we hand his attacker over to him, but we brought them back here and raised the alarm instead."

Madara nods as he tightens his pauldron straps, pleased; the treaty might have granted the Senju self-governance rights while on Uchiha land, but invading outsiders fall under Uchiha authority regardless of who is being attacked. "Their state?"

"Senju Keika agreed to perform a medical examination and set their broken bones; further healing was deferred to reduce flight risk. Hideo is in the room with them." Hideo is eighteen now and being considered for leadership, so is most certainly mature enough to be left supervising an incapacitated prisoner.

"Is Hako available?" Madara doesn't believe he's on a mission and he's one of the clan's better extraction specialists. In that he specialises in using genjutsu to extract information from people, generally by seeding an illusion in their memories so they –and therefore Hako– relive the recent past.

"Waiting on your approval, Madara-sama," Hako calls cheerfully from inside the building. Madara refastens his sash, bounces on his toes to check everything is securely fastened, takes his coat back and ties his belt over the top, swords in place, then raises his voice:

"A light touch, Hako; I want to know who commissioned this and have our prisoner be fully able to answer questions afterwards." In the meantime he'll go see what he can wring out of Hashirama. Even after two years of peace most of his warriors are reluctant to spend any time at all in Hashirama's general vicinity if they can possibly avoid it; understandable, especially on occasions like today when Hashirama is being pushy and thick-headed. If his friend were being _sensible_ he wouldn't be demanding his assassin be released into his care.

"As you command, Madara-sama."

Hashirama is in the Senju mission office, pacing impatiently along one side of the extravagantly decorated meeting room as on the opposite side Kamui is playing a dexterity game with her giggling two-year-old daughter.

"Madara!"

"Let's take this into the smaller room, shall we?" Madara suggests firmly before Hashirama can say anything else. This isn't a conversation that should have an audience. Especially not a toddler audience.

Hashirama huffs, but pulls aside the fusuma and walks through to the rear meeting room, which is less intricately decorated but still very elegant. More to the point, it's sealed against eavesdropping. "Madara, let the man go," he says firmly as soon as the fusuma are closed again. "He didn't hurt anybody."

Madara feels his eyebrows twitch up his forehead almost without conscious effort. "Why did you throw him through several trees then?"

"He tried to stab me while I was meditating," Hashirama admits blithely, "and I hit him slightly too hard parrying with my Wood Release."

"So he entered the village with the intent to do violence to somebody within it," Madara concludes, "and did in fact act to _commit_ violence."

"He was the only person to actually get _hurt_ though!"

"Only because the person he attacked was you, and you were in Sage Mode at the time. What if he'd targeted one of the children?"

"But he didn't!"

"He could have! If we don't make an example of him there will be more assassins!" His son Takahara is only two years old and little Sukumo-chan isn't even six months yet! He is _not_ going to endanger his own precious children by bending to Hashirama's ridiculous soft-headedness! Never mind his responsibilities to his clan, Kita would murder _both_ of them for endangering her babies, and Izuna and Tobirama would write the deaths off as an acceptable loss in the face of thirteen metres of nesting Toyotama sea-dragon! Madara hadn't realised until a very recent training session that his wife's Mangekyō form is _growing_ but it turns out that yes, it is and will continue to do so for as long as she lives. If the current trend of a metre a year stays constant she'll be bijuu sized by the time she's a grandmother; Madara rather hopes it will _not_. She'll struggle to train discreetly if that happens.

"But _peace_ Madara! We have to show everybody that we care about peace!" Hashirama's shiny doe eyes are not a rational argument, so Madara ignores them.

" _Is_ it peace if we allow assassins to slaughter our children in their beds, Hashirama?" Madara demands harshly. "No, that is _not_ peace. The daimyo has peace and he most _certainly_ makes an example of those who would break that peace! To preserve peace we must make very clear the price of breaking it."

"You can't just murder him!"

"It won't be murder, it will be _justice!_ Murder is what he tried to do to _you_ , idiot!" Not that Madara necessarily _would_ ; that depends entirely on whether the assassin was involved in vetting the mission, who exactly paid for it and what the reasoning behind it was. Hashirama is a very hard target; sending _one man_ after him could easily be a distraction or a deliberate instigation, or even a murder attempt on the assassin himself. Not that Hashirama appears to have given even half a moment's thought to _any_ of that.

Hashirama sags, a cloud of palpable misery forming over his head. Madara instantly vows to spite his friend _on principle_ with whatever solution he eventually comes to; Hashirama is trying to _manipulate_ him and that's not something he can let slide.

He'll thank Kamui for keeping his friend away from the Uchiha mission office later, once Hashirama is no longer in earshot. How she managed it is a mystery, but he is thankful as it has allowed his warriors to take change and keep the assassin in custody long enough to wring answers from them. That is more than deserving of thanks.

* * *

The village is fairly large now, with enough buildings to actually be worthy of being _called_ a village rather than just an outpost. It even has a small but respectable civilian population, farmers and tradespeople who have moved here in the search of business or protection. Madara named the village Konohagakure, a nod to the fact that in order to build _anything_ the first job is cutting down the trees growing in the way, and a backhanded acknowledgement of Senju involvement. Tobirama doesn't think it's a bad name, although it's possibly a little unimaginative.

Most people are calling it Konoha, shinobi and civilians alike. The village has barely existed for two years but it already has a public onsen, a tea house, a minshuku, several craft workshops and nearly two-dozen purely residential buildings along with the farms and mission offices. There's even a weekly market in the main square and several public parks, although the parks do feature quite a lot of food plants –fruiting trees, berry bushes and various edible leafy shrubs– in addition to ornamental ones.

There's even a clinic and a pharmacy, although the Senju clan's medics mostly staff the clinic and the Uchiha ones the pharmacy. There are apprentices involved in cross-training though, as both Hashirama and Madara are very focused on the importance of integration. The onsen for instance was technically an Uchiha project, but Madara cunningly hired a civilian family to actually run it once it was finished so that it is openly a _village_ service and not a clan one. Similarly, the Senju –and specifically Hashirama– did most of the work in creating the public parks, but the spaces are maintained by a mixed team of volunteers who are allowed to eat for free in the minshuku on the days when they work.

The inn in return gets first pick of the produce from the parks, which helps keep the prices low. It's not just clansmen and civilians eating there either; a number of wandering shinobi clans are taking an interest in Konohagakure, stopping by in ones and twos with trade goods or to stay the night between missions, taking advantage of the security afforded by Fire Country's two most powerful clans.

Hashirama's especially excited about that part. He makes a point of inviting those shinobi to move in permanently, but none of them have done so just yet. Possibly because said shinobi are aware that the only person with the authority to offer such an invitation is in fact Madara; as the Senju discovered last autumn, the Uchiha do in fact _own_ the land the village is built upon.

That was _intensely_ awkward and embarrassing, as it only came up in relation to a visit to the capital: Hashirama had been planning on making a trip now that peace was settled, but Madara had prevented it by making it clear that, since he was no longer resident on the daimyo's land, Hashirama was not _supposed_ to make such visits anymore.

Hashirama had not known the Senju were living on Uchiha land. _Tobirama_ had not known the Senju were living on Uchiha land. Tobirama now has a very good idea of _why_ the Uchiha and Senju had been feuding for so long and it doesn't make his clan look at all good; trespassing and invasion do not inspire others to take your side. That they are now technically a vassal clan to the Uchiha as a result of their own carelessness in _not asking_ about land ownership during the treaty negotiations is profoundly humiliating, but on the bright side Tobirama no longer has to worry about his brother offending the daimyo. That's Madara's problem.

Admittedly the vassalage terms are very good, but it's still an embarrassment. All the more so because the Senju clan's farming vassals had been aware of the change for _an entire year_ before Hashirama found out, due to them paying their rice tithes to the Uchiha the previous summer; _lower_ rice tithes than the daimyo demands, which is almost adding insult to injury. The clan also can't get _out_ of the vassalage, due to the penalties attached to the treaty and the fact that Hashirama has in fact signed it off. He just hadn't realised the implications of what he was signing.

Neither had Tobirama, which cuts the deepest. He hadn't _known_ , hadn't _realised_ and now the Senju have lost their autonomy and he _can't do anything_. He's now very sure _this_ was Kita's plan from the outset and why she was so _very_ patient and forgiving during the treaty proceedings, which he both begrudges and reluctantly respects. The scheme she had in mind was far longer-term than he anticipated, one which has benefitted all of them; something he has learned in the years since is a distinctive signature of Kita's plotting method.

The worst part by far is that the Senju are _benefitting_ from the arrangement. Probably not as much as the Uchiha are, but still benefitting significantly. Better mission survival statistics, better food, higher income due to diversifying into a range of crafts and trades, lower tithes, better steel bought from Uchiha smiths and better educational prospects. The schoolhouse opened this spring, teaching all of the children in the village kanji –separate classes for girls and boys, with the former learning in hiragana and the latter in katakana– and taught by a small rotation of Uchiha and Senju. Mito and Rika-ba both supervise classes for girls, while Iō, now a journeyman fūinjutsu specialist, supervises the boys alongside Uchiha Suisho. Tobirama has also run several of the advanced boys' classes, just as Kita's friend Uchiha Inemi has led a few advanced girls' classes.

The class is divided according to fluency, which means there are a lot of Senju in the basic class, but there are so many Uchiha anyway that it's not really obvious. The Senju clan has many more children now, but most of them are still far too young for school. Tsunama has only just started classes, which he is attending alongside Azami and Toshiko for all that the gender divide means he only spends time with them playing outside after lessons are over.

It's fairly clear that nowhere near _all_ the Uchiha children are attending the shared schoolhouse; there are far too many of them for that. However there are almost fifty children aged between six and ten, which is plenty and more than enough for the Senju and vassal children –only eleven Senju between six and twelve plus twenty-eight vassals between six and fifteen– to feel ever so slightly outnumbered, even with the age differences granting an advantage.

Their children attending the shared school has prompted more Uchiha to move into the village; Madara still carries his girls down daily –or else Izuna or some other warrior does– but most of the Uchiha children learning in the village do live there as well, be it on the farms or in the new residential properties. One of the farms is actually a mulberry plantation for silkworms, and quite a few mothers with young children live in the large, elegant house separating the neatly-spaced bushes from the road. The group of widows reeling, dying and weaving silk to support themselves are known to Tobirama –he saw their work repeatedly during his time as a hostage– but he hadn't learned until recently that the initiative was funded and founded by Kita not much more than a decade ago. He privately hopes that in time, there will no longer be so many widows and orphans needing to support their families in such a way.

No, actually the _worst_ part of the Senju clan's new subordinate status is that, once Madara explained all the various aspects and how they affect both their clans in very small words –essentually that what the Senju previously owed the daimyo in tax and deference was now owed to Madara– Hashirama had decided he _liked_ the arrangement. 'It's only Madara,' _indeed_ ; It may be 'only Madara' _now_ but what about in fifty years time, when it's Tsunama dealing with Takahara? Or in a century's time? Also, for Hashirama to assume his and Madara's friendship will _stop_ the man from pursuing what's best for the Uchiha is laughably naive. At least Tōka and his aunts can see where Tobirama is coming from.

He _does_ like the village though, despite what it has cost his clan in dignity and autonomy. It is everything his brother has always talked about wanting and getting to actually see it has been a miracle Tobirama never would have expected to receive.

"Tobi!"

Of course, there are still teething problems. Tobirama sighs; he's only just got back from a mission! He's not even submitted his report to the Senju office yet! And here his brother is, wearing his everyday clothes and looking like Madara's said or done something to upset him. Again.

"Anija, I need to hand in the mission scroll." And wash and eat, but he knows his brother too well to believe Hashirama will wait that long.

"I'll wait outside then." He'll _fidget_ outside; Tobirama resolves to be quick. It's not like there were any issues: it was with a regular client, a wealthy samurai who wants his flood defences checked over before the rains set in so that his fields won't be washed away if the rivers burst their banks, so it wasn't even all that challenging despite having his teenage cousin along to learn from him. Higi is getting very capable with Elemental water manipulation, so in future Tobirama might not have to join the squad on this mission at all.

Sure enough, five minutes later Hashirama is pacing up and down the street, unnerving all the passersby. "Anija," Tobirama says loudly as he steps outside, making a point to keep his voice calm. "Shall we go and sit in the tea house?"

"Yes, let's." His brother isn't smiling, which always makes him look disproportionately stern and a great deal like their late father. Given that a broad smile is what Hashirama usually prefers to show the world, the contrast is rather dramatic.

Once seated in a small, private room with tea and wagashi and Tobirama has had the opportunity to use the tea house's wash room to freshen up, he sets about finding out what exactly his brother is objecting to this time.

"So what's the matter, anija?"

"It's Madara," his brother says fretfully; which, of course it is. It's _always_ Madara. "He's arrested someone and isn't releasing them even though they didn't hurt anybody!"

Tobirama is sure what actually happened is nowhere near as autocratically unilateral as Hashirama is making it sound. Madara doesn't _do_ autocratically unilateral. The _Uchiha_ don't do autocratically unilateral. "What did this person actually _do_ then?"

"They didn't do _anything_ , Tobi! But Madara had them interrogated and dragged them off up to the Uchiha compound bundled up in suppression seals, even though they're injured!" His brother waves his hands around in distress. "He said something about a ransom when he really should be letting them _go!"_

"Were they spying on the Uchiha, anija?" It's cynical of him, but Tobirama can think of at least five different things this stranger could have been doing that his brother would dismiss as meaningless, yet would rightly rank them as a threat in Madara's eyes.

"No! Well, I don't _think_ they were," Hashirama amends scrupulously, eyes dropping to his tea. "But I suppose they _might_ have done before I saw them get dragged off."

"How about I get changed and call on Hikaku, to see what the official story is," Tobirama offers. "Then if there are significant differences I can ask Madara if he's willing to clarify matters. But anija, external security isn't strictly a village matter, so we don't actually have any grounds for objection regardless of what Madara does. We're living on his clan land, and while we've been granted an unprecedented degree of latitude for self-governance, we have no say in how he defends his land from outsiders. If this person _is_ offering a threat to the Uchiha clan –or to the Senju or the village generally– then he _can_ deal with it as he sees fit." Normally Tobirama would ask Izuna, but Izuna got married last month and is somewhat obsessive on the subject of his deadly and pregnant bride; Tobirama doesn't want to listen to his most challenging sparring partner extol E-san's virtues as the conversation turns. He is however grateful that the woman isn't holding a grudge over the loss of her hands; E has puppet replacements now and since she can use over twenty chakra strings at a time, her new hands are fully articulated and very responsive.

His brother fidgets. "I just, we founded this village so we could have _peace_ , Tobi. I don't see how being merciless and cruel to outsiders will help us to build peace when instead we could be welcoming and accepting."

"I'll talk to him," Tobirama repeats calmly. "I know you're good friends, anija, but you're both so passionate about protecting the village that you sometimes get tangled up at cross-purposes without actually disagreeing."

"That's true," Hashirama agrees, face finally softening into his habitual smile. "Thank you, Tobi; I'll be counting on you!"

* * *

Kita had expected parenting her children to be hard, and it _is_ hard. However it is less hard than she had been anticipating, given her experience raising her twin little sisters. Then the first months had been a constant conscious effort to be gentle, to be patient, to be kind; she didn't really look at Toshi and Azami and _love_ them until they were almost a year old. Takahara on the other hand… the moment Grandma handed him to her after his birth, her heart _ached_ for him. She just loved him instantly, so much so it was vaguely terrifying. Feeding him and changing him and cooing over him was almost easy after that; the hard part is keeping space open for the twins and Benten, who still need some of her attention, if not as much as her new son.

Sukumo is no less shockingly easy to love. Her beautiful baby girl with her father's square face, just as Takahara has Kita's thinner, more oval face. Both her babies have their father's messy hair, although Sukumo's is thinner than her brother's so it will likely behave itself once it's longer than shoulder length.

Until her little ones are old enough for that she will enjoy the hedgehog look. It reminds her of what her father of Before said about her own hair when she was little then: heavenly hair, because it had no parting in it. She is going to have to try and translate that pun; Madara would enjoy it.

Today is bright and fairly warm, so she is sitting in the garden on a blanket, Sukumo sitting up facing her and playing with a profusion of carved wooden animals that were a gift from the Senju when Takahara was born. Toshi and Azami were keen to play with those too at the time –and did– so her son has never had the impression those are _his_ toys; they are for sharing. Indeed, right now Takahara is hurtling around the garden, wooden cow in one hand and stuffed crow in the other, making enthusiastic sound effects as the bird pounces repeatedly on the obliviously grazing bovine.

Kita is grateful for her seals, which make sure Takahara couldn't fall in the pond if he tried. She's also grateful for her embroidery frame, which lets her continue to embellish the lining for Hidaka's almost-finished coat. Hidaka's currently wearing Hijiri's cut-down old coat from before he married, but as Hikaku still hasn't had a son Hidaka needs a coat which showcases his position as Yatagarasu Heir even though he isn't in the Outguard or an adult; the village existing means regular contact with outsiders, so Lineage Heads and their Heirs must be appropriately dressed when spending time with them. Hidaka's coat has already been put off once –when Yori got pregnant again right after the end of the hostage exchange– but she had another daughter rather than a son, so now Hidaka is almost sixteen he really _needs_ his own coat and Kita is finally making one. It's mostly finished; she just has to complete the last of the decorative gold embroidery and then sew the panels together to fit her cousin-by-marriage's current frame.

Hidaka's rather stringy-looking right now, what with being halfway through his growth spurt and not filled out yet, so there's some cunning folding involved in ensuring his coat fits right and still has plenty of growing room in it.

Kita has also made Benten a coat this year: her oldest and not-so-little girl is fourteen and has joined the Outguard. Doing so is far less risky now than it was before the treaty with the Senju, as all the Outguard are doing is running missions in squads and patrolling locally, and Benten has expressed a strong interest in the diplomatic and negotiating aspect. As well as in getting to go hunting; she may not be particularly fond of Madara's birds, but she is excellent with a bow and has a keen aim. She's gone on several supervised hunts –once with one of Tobirama's leopards, which was not exactly authorised beforehand– but joining the Outguard means she will be allowed to hunt alone much sooner than if she stayed civilian.

It's her choice and Kita is supporting her oldest girl. Benten has come a long way from the tiny premature orphan that everybody expected to die before being weaned.

Sensing her husband's approach, she looks up from the fine golden thread Midori made for her to smile as he comes around the corner of the house. She heard the alarm earlier and it was a relief when Sen dropped by a quarter of an hour later to assure her that nobody was hurt and everything was under control.

"Chichi!" Takahara squeals, dashing across the grass and throwing himself at his father's knees. Madara scoops him up and tosses him in the air, prompting fresh delighted screaming, catches him, then makes his way over to the blanket where Sukumo is bouncing and cooing.

"How's my darling boy?" Madara asks warmly, sitting carefully with their son slung across his shoulders and positioning his swords well out of reach of grabby baby fingers. "And my precious little cloud and my beautiful wife?"

"Sisi!" Sukumo babbles, throwing a wooden boar at her father's knee.

"All the better for you being here, husband," Kita assures him warmly as Takahara flops upside-down and giggles, head hanging against Madara's chest and feet flailing in the air. "Any trouble?"

"Just somebody targeting Hashirama," Madara says, tone deceptively light. "I've moved them into our diplomatic quarters; Hako and his squad are delivering a message to their clan elders, so they can ransom their shinobi back if they want to." If they are in the diplomatic quarters they are likely chained to the wall with their chakra suppressed, much as Senju Kabema once was.

"Where were they from?" If Madara is ransoming the assassin back then they were likely hired rather than acting spontaneously or on the behalf of their clan. Hako being part of the team delivering the ransom means that Madara wants more information on the party behind this attempt, so as to better defend against potential future efforts.

"Waterfall Country," Madara replies, swinging his son off his shoulder and back onto his feet; Takahara instantly throws himself at his father for a hug, which her darling husband indulgently obliges.

Kita knows absolutely nothing about Waterfall beyond that it lies with Earth and Grass Country to the west, the Land of Bears in the north and east and borders Fire to the south. It's through Inuzuka territory, so the Uchiha tend not to go that way unless they're specifically invited. However it's entirely possible that the Senju _do_ take missions in that direction. The Senju don't seem to care about poaching missions from other notable shinobi clans and potentially antagonising them, so they range much further afield –both in Fire Country and beyond its borders– than the Uchiha do. Not that the Uchiha _don't_ accept foreign missions, but they don't generally solicit them either; usually they get called in for things too big or politically complex for the local shinobi to be willing to risk themselves attempting.

"Do you think Tobirama might know who his brother has annoyed in that direction?"

"Can't hurt to ask," Madara agrees, ruffling Takahara's hair with a grin and letting the boy run off. He then sets the wooden boar back within arm's reach of Sukumo, who is now chewing on a carved tiger.

Kita leans forwards to brush some of his hair back from his face, smiling as he leans into her touch, his eyes soft. She does so _love_ her husband.

* * *

Discovering that Hashirama sent him to try and release a man who had attempted to _assassinate_ him is not as surprising as it probably should be. His brother's not had anything to fear from assassins since he was fifteen and worked out how to regenerate after injuries. He doesn't really take such threats seriously and never has, since he didn't start being an assassination _target_ until well after that.

Tobirama knows better; letting off assassins just encourages more assassins, and that means more people getting caught in the crossfire. People like his two nephews and increasingly numerous baby cousins, never mind all the _hundreds_ of Uchiha children. Madara is right: they have to make an example of this one, so that future enemies think twice before sending killers into their territory.

"How are we going to stop this happening again?"

Across the table Madara sips his tea. "Kita has an idea for a sealing field, like the Outguard's alert map but with a larger scale and more passive, so that everybody entering the field shows up on the map. If we make it sufficiently larger than the village and instate a clear zone where people are not supposed to wander, anybody in that zone will be easily picked up."

"And for those who come in along the road?" It is a good idea, but it needs fleshing out and refining to become viable.

Madara shrugs. "This is a civilian settlement; we can't _stop_ people coming in along the road. But the road _does_ pass between our mission offices, so if we set up guard posts with more maps that filter for chakra activity, we'll know where all the shinobi-capable individuals in our village are. Cut out those who belong to one or other of our clans, and…" He gestures eloquently.

Tobirama has no idea how a person would go about filtering people _out_ of a sweep like that, let alone how to manage it by clan. Clearly something to do with names –people self-identify and a seal can work with all manner of variables– but Madara's confidence suggests that Kita's done this kind of thing before. Those tags the Uchiha Outguard carry that he's never managed to come up with a good reason to be allowed to look at might have something to do with it; he might be able to find out how they work now, or even be allowed to join in creating the seals. Mito would be eager to involve herself as well; she specialises in barriers and this certainly qualifies.

"It would also help us keep crime down," Madara adds; "people where they shouldn't be and so on, as well as keeping a lid on youthful stupidity."

Tobirama would very definitely appreciate a framework for reducing youthful stupidity; the lack of warfare has seen it rise sevenfold among the Senju, and not just the younger warriors either. Last autumn _his own uncle_ got tangled up in a prank war with two twelve-year-old vassals and really, that says it all.

"So what are you going to do with the man?"

Madara shrugs. "The squad I've sent to Waterfall will offer his clan's elders the opportunity to ransom him back, but honestly I'm expecting them to disavow all knowledge and throw him out in an attempt to convince us that they had nothing to do with it. Which I know is a lie and won't stop me, but most people underestimate how deeply you can dig into a person's memories with genjutsu. I'm honestly more interested in _why_ his elders thought they could get away with this, so if the squad doesn't turn up any leads I'm writing to the Akimichi to let them know I'd be willing to commission an investigative mission."

Tobirama has heard about Yamanaka mind jutsu and has faced off against ino-shika-chō teams on missions; Madara _will_ get what he wants, no matter how much whoever sent the assassin might wish otherwise.

"As for the assassin… well, that depends entirely on him," Madara continues idly. "There's certainly precedent for keeping him in the diplomatic quarters for the next decade if it comes to it, and I'm sure that we could win his loyalty in that time should his own people cast him aside. Everybody wants somewhere to belong." He sips his tea.

That is both hilariously soft-hearted and ruthlessly practical; it might even _work_ , which is rather alarming really. "Perhaps Sakurajima will decide to marry him," Tobirama suggests humorously. Said warrior is still both single and without children of her own, and she _does_ admire the long-dead former Outguard Head Uchiha Biei-Fuji rather more than is probably wise. Tobirama after all knows exactly which precedent Madara is referring to; teasing the man is probably not wise _either,_ but Tobirama is familiar with the tolerances and limits of elder brothers and alluding to infamous ancestors is mild, all things considered. He is _definitely_ going to mention the assassin and Madara's willingness to keep the man around to Sakurajima; what she does with that will be up to her.

Madara glares over the rim of his teacup. "Do _not_ give her ideas. Speaking of, who _has_ your brother offended in Waterfall?"

Tobirama smirks, eyes dropping to his own tea, but obligingly considers the question. "The Senju do take missions in that area," he admits eventually, "so it might just be business, but I think there was some kind of factional spat around there that my brother broke up a bit after we put up the mission offices. Waterfall doesn't have shinobi clans quite like Fire does; there are a few minor lineages that recently all banded together so as to better protect themselves and reduce infighting, and I've heard rumours of some kind of secret settlement that civilians can't get into."

Madara frowns, staring into space. "That was in Land of Bears, right? The report indicated it was something about blasphemy, fallen stars and various kinds of kinjutsu. Both parties claiming the other's secret techniques were blasphemous, in fact."

"That's right." The sharingan allows for a truly excessive quantity of rote memorisation. Tobirama has a feeling there was also something about taboo _water,_ which is just baffling. He's tempted to fund a mission himself, just to follow that up and get more details.

"In which case it's probably vengeance for the humiliation and because they don't want him doing it again." Madara sighs in a deeply put-upon fashion; Tobirama understands the feeling completely. "Can you talk to your mission office and see about maybe _not_ giving him missions in Waterfall and its general vicinity for the next decade? They're not exactly equipped to start a war but they can make life _very_ inconvenient for us if they put their minds to it."

"I'll see what can be done." Madara's right that not giving these people the opportunity to take pot-shots at his brother is their best possible course of action here; time dulls most wounds, especially when there are so many other more pressing priorities to focus on. Hopefully antagonising the locals with his high-handedness won't turn into a regular issue; unfortunately, knowing Anija, it might. Tobirama would rather _not_ acquire a map just to mark off places Hashirama should avoid for everybody else's peace of mind, but in all honesty it would be easier than keeping an ongoing list.

* * *

Izuna and E have named their adorable infant daughter Ena and Mito has also had a daughter, whom she has named Menka. Kita has sent both gifts; Mito seems very pleased to have a daughter after two sons and Izuna is utterly besotted with his little girl. E is also very smug, if seemingly disinclined to have any more children. Well, possibly _one_ more so Ena-chan has a sibling, but no more than that. She's extremely determined to work out a seal to _enforce_ said limit, so she may well end up earning her mastery after all.

If so, Kita will happily support her. If E _succeeds_ in making a contraceptive seal then that will be exceptionally useful and likely revolutionary, potentially to the point of changing their entire culture: women no longer conceiving unless they _want_ to will dramatically alter the balance of power right across the Elemental Nations and might even have a knock-on effect on the cultural tendency to arrange marriages. After all, a woman in an unwanted marriage could then just _not conceive_ until her husband divorced her, leaving her the option to find a husband more to her own taste afterwards.

As it is, even in a happy marriage such a seal has its place. Kita is pregnant _again_ and the baby is due in the spring! Sukumo has only just had her first birthday and Takahara isn't quite three yet! She's going to have five children to make time for soon –one of them a newborn– and that's quite enough for the time being.

Madara, rather predictably, is both delighted and slightly smug. Hashirama is also excited –there will be barely four months' difference in age between her unborn and little Menka-chan– but if he's expecting her to name her next child in his honour he's going to be disappointed. Just because he called his second son 'Madoma' does _not_ mean she feels obliged to reciprocate on her husband's behalf. She's more likely to pick a recent Amaterasu name if the child is a boy, or a historic traditional name if it's a girl.

The Uchiha clan has grown significantly over the past three years; very few people have died and a _lot_ of babies have been born. The Senju clan has also grown, if nowhere near as dramatically, and the village is accordingly larger. Quite a lot of young Uchiha couples are settling in Konohagakure purely so as to have a new house and a larger garden, then getting to know the neighbours and forming friendships with civilians and Senju alike.

It's all very hopeful, all the more so when Madara has recently received inquiries from some of the larger wandering clans –the Shimura and Sarutobi in particular– who are interested in settling in the village. Well, settling _some_ of their population in the village at least; they're unlikely to remain there all the time, seeing as their client base is mainly along the river border with Wind –in the case of the Sarutobi– and the western half of the southern coast. Still, a safe, open village that is both welcoming to shinobi and well-defended from attack is a rarity, so it's not at all surprising that other clans are showing an interest. The Akimichi are also inquiring after possibly buying up a little land, as are the Inuzuka, although Kita suspects that the Inuzuka are mostly interested in having somewhere less bitterly cold to hole up in over winter every year.

Still, that's as good a reason as any. She's read intelligence reports which suggest the Hyūga are allowing their vassal clans settle inside one of their more central villages, so clearly Hisaaki-dono can see the benefits of being a little less isolationist as well.

The matter of the assassin is still ongoing. The loose coalition of shinobi clans in Waterfall very predictably exiled the man _in absentia_ , which he took as badly as any devotedly loyal warrior would –the screaming was _very_ alarming– and then sunk into bitter misery for a few months. Sakurajima seems to be dragging him out of that –she's very interested in the man– and is nagging Madara to parole him, which her husband is thus far avoiding. Avoiding Sakurajima too, to the point of hiding in other people's houses when she comes looking for him.

Tobirama sniggers every time that particular ongoing drama comes up in conversation, which is intriguing but Kita can't really be bothered to get to the bottom of the joke when she has two toddlers to run around after and another baby on the way. Whatever her husband decides to do about Kakuzu will be measured, appropriate and beneficial to the clan, so she can't see the point of poking her nose in unless Madara specifically asks for her input.

There's so much else to do that's more important at the moment, such as crafting an appropriately lavish gift for the wedding of the daimyo's son. Has it really been a decade since that pivotal visit to the capital where she first met the Senju brothers? It doesn't feel _that_ long ago…

* * *

It's late autumn after the fifth anniversary of the treaty with the Senju and really, Madara's grateful to see the mission season end. No, there's not a war on, but the past year has been… fraught. To say the least. It started with the daimyo summoning him to the capital for Risshun, the first day of spring at the beginning of February, and never really _stopped_.

That had not been a fun meeting; thankfully Mitama, his youngest, was newly-weaned so Kita had been able to come along too, with Benten to act as attendant and nanny and a full squad for security. Takahara and Sukumo had stayed behind with Izuna and E, although Madara suspects Kita's younger sisters Naka and Midori did most of the actual childcare; Izuna had all of Madara's duties to the clan and overseeing Konohagakure to keep up with alongside his own responsibilities and E was no less busy juggling her fūinjutsu experiments alongside their toddler daughter.

The daimyo is _concerned_ about how Madara's supposedly civilian settlement has collected so many other shinobi clans. It isn't just the Shimura and the Sarutobi now; the Kurama Clan have settled in Konohagakure, a little cluster of houses and fields that is almost a miniature village-within-a-village, as have the Inuzuka, who are spread right across the north-eastern outskirts so as to be reliably upwind of the Uchiha forge district. There was talk of allowing each new clan a compound within the village, but Kita pointed out that the whole _point_ of the village was to integrate and that wouldn't happen if they were all walling each-other out. Hashirama then got very taken by the idea of 'a village without walls' and the idea stuck.

Of course, it isn't the smaller clans that are the real problem: the Akimichi have negotiated and made certain significant territorial concessions in order to truly _own_ a modest area of village land –which they will not put walls around, in accordance with the new Konohagakure charter– and the Nara and Yamanaka have made concessions of their own so as to be allowed to continue as vassals to the Akimichi despite part of their clans residing on Uchiha land. The Aburame are also slowly investigating the possibility of arranging a residence in the village, which puts three of Fire Country's noble shinobi clans in one place.

Madara would be worried if he were in the daimyo's place. But explaining to the daimyo how Konohagakure is becoming a focus for trade and that all these various clans are mostly moving in for a combination of protection for vulnerable family members and the opportunity to make money is very challenging, even though he knows the daimyo is certainly benefitting on the taxation side of things. After all, Madara _would_ say that even if his motives were nefarious. Father would definitely say all manner of placatory things then cheerfully recruit an army on the side.

It helps that all the major clans have separate mission offices; Konohagakure's main street has eight of them now, the Akimichi sharing theirs with the Nara and Yamanaka and one being a 'civilian' office, shared between the various minor clans whose active numbers can be counted on both hands with fingers to spare. Madara very deliberately hasn't consolidated his village's shinobi inhabitants into a cohesive force.

Yet.

It does _not_ help that coherent shinobi _training_ has been open to all children aged between eight and fourteen since last autumn. Training supervised by Uchiha and Senju working side-by-side, under raised roofs or out in the open depending on the weather. Madara put a lot of work into clarifying the rules for shinobi training –a prospective student has to also be attending civilian classes appropriate for their level of competence and has to _graduate_ from at least the middle level of those classes in order to be permitted to take missions– to ensure that everybody will know their kanji, geography, botany and mathematics, and be familiar with a decent range of poetry and literature. There isn't a shared history curriculum yet –each clan keeps their own history– but Tobirama is helping him assemble a generic civilian history of the Elemental Nations that covers important things like longstanding feuds, trade wars, political systems and changing national boundaries.

The problem the daimyo has is that the Uchiha clan now has non-aggression treaties of varying formality with half the shinobi clans in Fire Country; the more influential half at that. The Hyūga are building their own version of Konohagakure down in the south-east, but Madara has signed a basic treaty with Hisaaki-dono to ensure that, should Uchiha-allied and Hyūga-allied shinobi find themselves on opposing sides of a contract, a mutually favourable outcome will be negotiated, with the negotiations potentially including single combat between selected champions if no peaceful solution can be found.

But, and it is a big 'but,' the village isn't actually taking _more_ shinobi missions. Honestly, the various larger clans involved are all taking _fewer_ missions these days! The Shimura have two tea shops and are building a public library as a contribution to the education system, the Sarutobi have started up a kiln of brightly-coloured pottery and are selling moulded cast-iron pots –teapots especially– the Kurama have two print workshops, and all of these endeavours are doing really well! The Inuzuka are even selling carved horn and bone accessories now, alongside their traditional cattle herding, butchering and leatherworking!

It took a _month_ of nerve-racking political posturing, lavish gifts, sweet-talking and letting Kita work her magic on Murasaki-dono –who was as delighted to meet Benten as to coo over little Mitama– before the daimyo decided that Konohagakure was covered by the existing –if archaic– laws and customs governing imperial nobility with samurai dependents. Which means that, should the daimyo officially go to war, Madara will have to lead a unit of shinobi vassals alongside another of his own clansmen; at least such an event would place him as a general on par with the daimyo's most senior samurai, so he will be able to organise his men on the battlefield as he sees fit rather than bow to bushido sensibilities.

It also means that the daimyo cannot commission _any_ of the shinobi under his protection for trade wars and other unofficial skirmishing, which Madara is grateful for. However foreign daimyo may still hire them for such things, and Madara will be able to accept.

The daimyo of Fire can hire foreign shinobi to do likewise, after all. He might even hire Uzumaki; they're not noble or anybody's vassals and not technically citizens –they live on an island which falls outside any and all external authority– and their work is excellent. Said work has also got a lot more varied since they started colluding regularly with Kita; his wife's work has not, but her newer apprentices are creating all manner of things. Some of them even work.

Of course, the daimyo problem was only the beginning. Then at Shunbun there was Sakurajima's marriage to Kakuzu the assassin from Waterfall, who snuck out the week before the wedding and murdered all his former clan's elders so as to present said former clan's prize kinjutsu to his blushing bride on their wedding day, to 'strengthen your lineage.' Sakurajima was of course _ecstatic_ at this declaration of commitment, but Madara was the one who had to deal with the political aftermath and feign he had no idea who could _possibly_ have wiped out the entire upper echelon of one of Waterfall's more powerful clans and carried off their entire jutsu library. No idea at _all_ , all his warriors are accounted for.

Sakurajima was not the only person getting married at Shunbun; Tobirama was too. Madara had ended up getting involved in organising that –well in arranging the marriage contract, since it also affects his cousin Kamui– despite the marriage being technically an internal Senju affair: Tobirama married his cousin Uzumaki Chika, illegitimate daughter of his aunt Senju Tanka. Not that Tobirama actually _wanted_ to get married any more than Chika did, but as only living brother to the Senju Clan Head he is expected to contribute to the Senju bloodline, and if he hadn't made his own arrangements before he was thirty, his grandmother would have done so for him.

Marrying Tobirama enables now-Senju Chika to stay in the village and commit to a long-term relationship with Kamui, as Madara could then arrange for Chika to be adopted into the clan as Kamui's 'sister', something Uchiha do when they fall in love with a person of the same sex from outside the clan. Hashirama is convinced the 'symbolic adoption' was a wedding gift and Madara can't face the effort of explaining otherwise; Tobirama's domestic arrangements aren't Hashirama's business anyway. Chika will give her husband two children, after which her 'marital duties' will be complete and she will be free to spend all her time with Kamui; Tobirama will be raising the children, seeing as he is no longer going on missions at all so as to focus on Konohagakure's academy and the smooth running of the village generally, and Chika very much wants to travel. Which she could not have otherwise done with Kamui unless she was prepared to estrange herself entirely from her Uzumaki relatives, which she was understandably reluctant to. The Uzumaki are strict about keeping their clansmen close to home, so to be free of clan obligations Chika has to be officially and unquestionably Senju.

Shunbun was followed by a blur of mission vetting and mediating all kinds of disagreements, as well as subtly rearranging village governance in light of the daimyo's decision. Clan heads are all responsible for their respective clansmen, but now there's a council of Heads for discussing village affairs that affect more than just one or two clans, including the various civilian families who have moved in. Civilian representatives are elected by street or quarter rather than by clan, but they do get a proportionate voice in domestic matters.

No say in matters of overall governance and defence though, any more than the other shinobi clans do; the daimyo has made it clear that those are Uchiha business and his acceptance of the village is conditional on the Uchiha taking those responsibilities seriously. Madara is therefore _responsible_ for the village despite not actually _leading_ the village, because there is no single person leading the village. It's a collaborative effort. Which is very welcome because it means Madara doesn't have to do everything himself.

He has far too much to do _without_ adding on infrastructure maintenance, education, arranging festivals and vetting everybody _else's_ missions as well as the Uchiha's. He recently delegated responsibility for feeding the village's non-clan widows, orphans and destitute to Kiyoshi of the Raiden lineage, seeing as she's already taken responsibility for gathering the clan's tithes and overseeing their storehouses for Ohabari-oba, because it's not peace if there are people dying of hunger on your land. It isn't. To allow such a travesty is a failure and Madara won't have it. Everybody gets to eat; nobody in Konohagakure will go to bed with an empty stomach and everybody will have a roof over their head. There's no shortage of work to be done and opportunities to learn –they don't charge for the lessons in the school and materials are provided– so there's room for people to better themselves if they choose to.

Tōka had a son in May, but that is _not_ Madara's problem. He doesn't care that she's not married and that she claims she prayed for the baby at a shrine to Inari; it's _not his problem_. He's not a Senju. Hashirama should just let the matter drop.

Senju Tenshu _is_ a very cute baby, but that's irrelevant; most babies are cute. It's built into babyhood and Madara knows it: he has three children and nine nieces and nephews –counting Hikaku and Hijiri's children alongside Izuna and Tateshina's– all aged five or younger to prove it. Never mind that Hijiri's wife Naka-mochi –nicknamed for her sweet tooth and cookery skills– is pregnant again, so soon it will be ten nieces and nephews. And Madara _has_ noticed how Toyoni looks at Kita's sister Naka-coatmaker –and how she looks back at the widower despite the nine year age difference– so that's another wedding he's probably going to be officiating before next spring.

Well at least that way Toyoni's sister-in-law will stop grumbling about having to run after _his_ children as well as her own and her late brother's.

To cap it all, this year Kagutsuchi turned fourteen and very earnestly came to talk to Madara about his responsibilities as last surviving member of the Kōjin lineage, including the possibility of joining the Outguard. Madara doesn't really _want_ Kagutsuchi joining the Outguard, but the boy does at least need the _training_ the Outguard offers, both for combat and for negotiation. It's not like he's got anybody to teach him that kind of thing at home.

So Kagutsuchi has joined the Outguard and is now under Madara's guardianship, which means he can at long last go over the Kōjin's assets and histories on his ward's behalf, set things in order and untangle what exactly he needs to be teaching the boy of his lineage alongside more general matters.

Kagutsuchi is three years younger than Benten and almost as serious as Hikaku was at that age. There's not much Madara can do about that except prove to his young clansman that he can trust Madara to see to his education and responsibilities, so that he doesn't feel obliged to do it all himself. And no, Madara _won't_ be signing off on an early adulthood like his father did for Hikaku, not even if by some disaster Kagutsuchi acquires Mangekyō; the boy needs all the childhood he can get. It does at least remind him to look into whether there's a trend in how past Kōjin awakened their Mangekyō and what mental exercises and values the lineage have instated to train their instance of the clan bloodline. He will make sure Kagutsuchi knows them so that he can pass them on to his own eventual children in good time.

Ohabari-oba has been looking as tired as he feels lately; Minakata's only thirteen, but Madara knows Obasan is already training him up to replace her. She probably won't hand over until he's twenty, but that's not actually as far off as it might be, all things considered.

Now, if only he could come up with a good village-wide solution for dealing with fights, drunken stupidity and petty crime that doesn't require at least three Clan Heads to be on hand to scold those responsible… civilian settlements this large tend to have a militia or police force, but he's not yet sure how to arrange such a thing –they'd need to be able to subdue drunk shinobi– and the politics involved in getting various clans to deal with the existing misbehaviour is already giving him a headache.

* * *

It's a year since that incredibly stressful visit to the capital and Kita is very, very pregnant. Again. It's not comfortable –it's never comfortable– but it's familiar by now. This will be the fourth child of her body and the seventh child of her heart; Benten is her heart's firstborn, even though she was only twelve when she started raising that long-ago toddler.

Twelve is far too young for motherhood, but Kita had the unusual advantage of knowledge beyond her years, if not practical experience. She knew about the theoretical requirements and limitations of parenting –among many other things– well before she Remembered the context for that knowledge. In this life she has a deep well of theory and a slowly growing grasp of its context, along with a profound and invaluable confidence in her own value.

She is loved. She has never once questioned it. Even if every single person in this lifetime turns against her, she will be no less precious, no less loved. It makes it easier to love others, knowing that.

But it is early winter, November frost on the grass in the mornings, and Grandma is very sick. Tateshina named her daughter born last autumn 'Fushimi' after Grandma, but now that seems almost like a bad omen. Almost, because Kita very firmly does not believe in such things. Grandma is past seventy and has spent her entire life working hard; she is fading and deserves the chance to rest. She has raised daughters and granddaughters and lived to see great-grand-daughters, and has a great-grandson who may well lead the clan once he is grown; she has had a long and happy life and she's ready to move on.

It is Kita and Tateshina and their siblings, along with their last two aunts still among the living and a handful of cousins, who will suffer for her death. Not Grandma; Grandma will be free.

Grandma is however making a very clear effort _not_ to die; she says she wants to see her last great-grandchild be born. Kita isn't due for another fortnight though and Grandma can't even get out of bed anymore. Her eyesight is failing too, which in Uchiha is a very clear sign of the end; their eyesight is unusually strong, even in old age or severe injury. Mangekyō blindness is the exception there, but it could be argued that even then it is a sign of impending death.

Kita is most grateful that her husband has managed to cheat death in that respect and drag Izuna along with him; it's never outright been _said,_ but she's aware that they've both beaten the odds rather dramatically and carried most of the clan's other Mangekyō wielders along for the ride. Oshiki's eyesight is still good and so is Hikaku's, and they've both had Mangekyō for quite a long time now despite not having anybody to swap eyes with. Peace likely helps, as they're not using it much in the field.

Tobirama is babysitting for her today: he's got his red-headed infant son Makuma strapped to his chest and is chasing two-year-old Mitama, three-year-old Ena and four-year-old Sukumo around the garden, almost-six-year-old Takahara chasing after him and all of the children shrieking delightedly. E is as heavily pregnant as Kita is and due a full week earlier, so neither of their husbands is exactly the picture of calm right now. Izuna is managing slightly better than Madara; her brother-in-law has classes to teach so is rather better distracted.

Konohagakure is getting so large that the Uchiha's lineage heads are starting to make considering noises about moving the clan there wholesale; with all the many, many children being born the compound is feeling more than a little cramped, and the conveniences of running water, eating out, classroom lessons supervised by other people and easy access to many more babysitters is casting a siren spell over even the grumpiest elders. It would be a long, slow process –so many buildings to be moved or outright replaced, so much land to clear– but now it's the _clan_ agitating for Madara and Ohabari-oba to arrange it, rather than Madara having to persuade the clan to attempt it.

It's a welcome reversal, if no less tiring. Sahoro's Mizuhame residence was only completed four years ago and it's starting to look like Kagutsuchi will never actually move into the old Kōjin lineage house. If they _do_ make the move, the Lineage Halls will likely not be clustered together as they are now, the centre and focus of the Uchiha clan compound, but spread out across the village according to where each current Head wants to live. Which on the one hand is a nigh-miraculous change, but on the other makes her a little sad. Change is often painful, even change for the better; hopefully they can keep and move all the traditional interior furnishings, even if the original buildings are torn down completely.

Kita rubs her lower back absently and goes back to finishing up the bento for the children's planned picnic. They don't want to go very far –just up the back of the cliffs overlooking the village– and Tobirama has agreed to accompany them since Kita is rather slow-moving at present, so it will be a pleasant way to enjoy what little sunlight there is. Madara's visiting the Aburame to negotiate trade, tax allotments and how they will change should the other noble clan build a residence in the village and Izuna is teaching a genjutsu course down at the academy, so it's nice to go outside and think about things other than how little time left Grandma has.

Grandma's sleeping a lot at the moment too. Tateshina, Naka and Midori are taking it in turns to sit at her bedside, but Kita hasn't been allowed to do more than visit; she's pregnant and should leave the tedious and stressful tasks to her more able-bodied siblings. Even though Naka has a two-month-old baby to nurse, as well as three step-children to manage.

It's nice up on the cliff top. A bit windy, but everybody's well wrapped up in coats, scarves and shawls and the sun is shining as much as it can. Kita sits on the picnic blanket and coos over eight-month-old Makuma, who needs to be watched because he is a determined and precocious crawler. The seals around the blanket's edges keep him contained, but he keeps putting everything he can find into his mouth, be it her own children's discarded toys, dropped mittens or a windblown leaf, so she is kept on her toes.

He's a delight. A smaller iteration of Tobirama's broad face and almond eyes, topped by a fluffy shock of brilliant scarlet; the leopards are almost more smitten than the proud father, even though Makuma keeps gumming on their tails.

They've just finished lunch –a gloriously loud and confusing experience– when Kinu zips up the hill, chakra agitated and still dressed for the forge, furs and scarves thrown haphazardly over the top of her leather apron.

"Aneki! Aneki!" She tumbles to a halt, tripping over a rock and almost falling flat on her face.

"Kinu-chan?" What's going on?

"Aneki, Naka-ba says to come back _now_ Grandma wants to talk to you!"

Kita feels her blood run cold; rising to her feet, she stops dead at the sudden sticky wetness trailing down her thighs under her kimono. "Tobirama, I'm having the baby _now,"_ she says blandly. It's too early, but evidently her feelings on the matter are irrelevant! She can't exactly make it stop!

Kinu squeaks in terror. All the other children look puzzled, but it won't take many seconds for them to catch her mood and start panicking as well.

"Ah," is all her wonderfully practical friend says in reply. "Kinu-chan, would you stay here with your sister while I take the children down to your oba-san? I won't be many minutes."

"Bira-oji?" Poor Kinu is just old enough to know _exactly_ what's coming and far too young to have been taught how to help.

"I know what to do, Kinu-chan," Kita assures her, then grits her teeth through a sudden, violent contraction. "Just stay with me, please."

Tobirama quickly hands his son off to Tōnari, who bounces down the slope with the scruff of Makuma's coat clenched in her teeth, then lets Takahara climb up onto his back, tucks Mitama into the front of his coat and picks up Sukumo and Ena one under each arm. "I will be back shortly," he assures her firmly, then vanishes in a swirl of leaves.

Her audience depleted down to one little sister and one leopard, Kita drops gratefully into a crouch and focuses on regulating her breathing through the pain. Her body knows _exactly_ what it's doing after so many births; this could wind up being extremely quick.

"Aneki?"

"Sit with me," Kita manages, beckoning and then resting a grateful hand on her sister's shoulder as Kinu gingerly kneels beside her. "Talk to me, please, Kinu-chan. About wire." Wire is familiar and soothing and Kinu is partway through her apprenticeship under cousin Yae. Jōnen's almost finished his own apprenticeship, so Kinu will have lots to talk about as she is finally being allowed to take on more tasks.

Kinu takes a firm breath before breaking into a steady and increasingly animated monologue about steel and forge temperatures and drawing blocks, which Kita can actually contribute to in between rapidly more frequent contractions. This is _very_ quick; she must have missed the earlier signs due to the cold and being distracted by keeping Makuma entertained.

It's scary. Her body is out of control, she's _alone_ and it's too fast. Too much.

Hurts.

 _BabybabybabytoomuchhurtspleaseGod_ _ **help**_ _can'tdoit_ –

"Kita." She looks up.

Tobirama.

"Tobirama." He's looking very blank. She can't feel his chakra.

"Kita, may I assist you?"

Wow. That's– formal. Kita blinks. Cringes through another fierce contraction. She has _help_.

"Yes." What else–? She fumbles for her coat fastenings. "Now."

Tobirama firmly moves her hands away and quickly frees the coat strings, then unties her obi and tugs up her layered under-kimono almost to her waist. Kita shifts her weight, reaches under herself to feel –yes that _is_ wide enough– then grabs his hands and moves them into the right place.

The next contraction _really hurts_ and she pushes with it, gritting her teeth against the scream in her throat which comes out as a tight whine instead. Kyōnari's ears flatten, the leopard pacing uneasily behind Tobirama, whose eyes are lowered and intent on his own wrists.

Kita pushes again. She _hurts_ so _much_ –

"I can see the head," Tobirama says calmly. Kinu leans around, all morbid curiosity now that she's not being expected to _do_ anything.

Kita pushes as hard as she can with the next contraction, and again with the one after; suddenly everything hurts a whole lot less and Tobirama's hands are full of soggy, wiggly newborn. Kita feels her sharingan light up in awe and love –she has a new _child_ – and then her ears are filled with indignant infant mewling.

"Ah yes, it's cold isn't it?" she gasps. Tobirama instantly reaches up one-handed to whip off his fur collar, which he wraps around the infant –a boy– leaving the umbilical hanging out. By the way the ties and loops match as he fastens them, it's entirely possible that collar was designed to be turned into makeshift winter swaddling; Kita wonders where he got it from. Or maybe it's just meant to double as a hood?

The baby whines again, but more quietly. Kita reaches up with trembling hands and tugs feebly at the neck of her under-kimono, so as to be able to tuck the baby –another son, her baby is a boy– against her breasts where it's warm and he can suckle if he wants to. He's so small, visibly smaller than her other babies even wrapped in fur –he's two weeks premature and she will have to be so _very_ attentive– and Tobirama lets her drag his hands forwards so he can slide the bundled-up newborn inside her clothes for her.

There's a small explosion of chakra off to one side moments later and Yori is abruptly present, elbowing Tobirama aside and pressing white-lit fingers to Kita's throat and the baby's head. "All good," she declares firmly after a single breathless moment, "but you need to go somewhere warm and change clothes at _once_."

"Afterbirth," Kita says shortly; the umbilical cord is hanging down her front, connecting the quieting baby tucked against her heart to the placenta still attached to the inside of her womb.

"I'll speed that up a little," Yori decides, hands reaching down. Tobirama is now facing away, chakra and conjured water washing the blood and goo off his hands. Then Kita has to push through a fresh round of contractions –much sooner than would naturally be the case– and the placenta comes out, whole and dark and floppy at the other end of the umbilical cord.

"Ow," Kita manages, blinking past tears. Off to one side, Kinu giggles hysterically into her gloves.

"I imagine so," Yori agrees, tone desert-dry. "Very quick and far too early. I was elbow-deep in minced leaves twenty minutes ago and had to decontaminate; if Tobirama hadn't dropped the children on Sakurajima's husband and ran back up here _immediately,_ Kinu would have been the one catching the baby."

That… theoretically doable, but much less comfortable. Tobirama's very competent and does actually have medical experience; if something _had_ gone wrong, he would have been able to offer meaningful assistance. "Thanks, Tobirama," she manages.

Her friend, now standing and still not looking at her, ducks his head.

"Get over here and cut the cord, Tobirama," Yori says firmly. "You delivered the baby, you cut the cord."

Tobirama jerks like he's been stabbed and turns to stare at them both. "But–"

Kita looks him in the eye, vaguely aware that her sharingan is still active and that she has tears streaking her face. "Please?"

Tobirama slowly walks over, crouches down and accepts the freshly sterilised knife Yori offers him. The process takes barely a second –Yori has already tied off the cord– and then Kita's new son is fully his own person for the first time in his entire –if short– existence. Although he won't be recognised as such for another fortnight, when his chakra coils start to bud.

"Thank you, Tobirama," she repeats quietly, "for making the most terrifying experience of my life slightly less terrible." So much could have gone wrong in the past hour, but she _trusts_ Tobirama and his being here gave her the confidence she needed to trust herself as well.

"Thank you for allowing me to," Tobirama replies, voice equally soft as his eyes drift to the tiny, soggy baby tucked against her chest, fast asleep with reddened face surrounded by white fur.

"Can you carry me back down the hill?" She's suddenly exhausted, cold, and unhappily reminded that Kinu is only here at all because Grandma sent for her. Grandma is probably dying _right now_ and she needs to be there. "I need to introduce Baasan to her newest great-grandson."

"I would be honoured," Tobirama says firmly, lifting her to her feet, straightening her ruined under-layers and fastening her kimono loosely over them with her damp obi, brushing off a few clinging spots of snow. "Kinu-chan, would you pick up the bento and toys so I can wrap your sister in the blanket?"

* * *

Tobirama carries Kita into the Toyotama main house, Kinu helping him out of his winter boots in the genkan so he doesn't tread mud inside, walking through the main room and into the bedroom on one side where he can sense a flickering, fading civilian chakra signature surrounded by so many other, stronger ones. Everybody scrambles out of the way to let him pass –the fusuma have been pulled back so the press of people can spread into the neighbouring bedroom– and he sets Kita on the floor by the head of the futon, well aware of how wan and sweaty her face is and the mess that her clothes are in under the muddy blanket roughly swaddling her.

"Kita-chan?" The elderly lady propped up on the futon rasps threadily as Tobirama tries to retreat discreetly and is stopped by Naka coming up behind him. _Everybody_ is in here, lots of people he doesn't know by name alongside Kita's younger siblings and all of her children and Tateshina's as well, including the toddler named after the woman dying in the bed, who is fast asleep on a small futon on the far side of said bed alongside her older brother and his own infant son.

His son who also should _not_ be here, but _is_ despite the press of children and grandchildren, nieces, great-nieces, great-nephews and great-grandchildren. Clearly he is missing something _important_.

"Kinu-chan came to fetch me and my baby decided they wanted to see you too, Baasan," Kita says wetly, more tears welling up as she unfolds the blanket and tugs open the neck of her kimono, revealing the small infant swaddled in his fur collar. "Look at your terribly impatient great-grandson!"

The old lady wheezes gently, a trembling hand reaching up. "Full of fire," she gasps, shaking with almost silent chuckles. "Phoenix in winter."

"You should have heard him Baasan; barely born and before we could do anything he started crying at the cold."

"Strong."

"Yes, he's so strong, Baasan," Kita says thickly, smearing her tears with one sleeve. "I have three strong sons now, to go with my four strong daughters."

"Good mother," the dying woman croaks, patting her hand. Kita leans in to kiss her.

"Thank you, Baasan."

And then death is in the room. Kita is hauled to her feet and handed off to Tobirama –why him?!– and they are both ushered away from the deathbed into the main room, where there is tea and sweets waiting along with a change of clothes. Naka intervenes long enough to get Kita washed and changed into a plain black kimono, then pushes her back at Tobirama.

He _still_ has no idea what's going on. This is clearly a private family event but he's not being allowed to _leave_. The futon his son is napping on has been moved to beside the iori, well within view and three other sleepy toddlers now added to the pile for afternoon naps, but Kita is leaning absently into his side and staring blankly into her teacup. Both Toshiko and Azami appeared to snuggle against him and sniffle quietly right before Kita was led off to change, so he is thoroughly blocked in.

Tobirama accepts tea and mochi. Tobirama allows some man whose name he doesn't know to take his coat and furs, which he was in too much of a hurry to hang up on his way in, and accepts a warm woollen kimono –also in mourning black– to change into since he has mud on the knees of his trousers. He hums a quiet tune to soothe the twins when he gets back from changing –and Takahara and Sukumo, who have crawled into their mother's lap to snuffle– carefully wraps an arm around Kita's shoulders and keeps watch of the general mood of the house. Everyone around him is unhappy, in pain and terribly subdued, including the children too young to know what's going on put perfectly able to read their parents' moods, and Tateshina is crying on her husband in the garden, but there's a settled feeling to it too. Like everything has happened in good order and everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing.

Kita is the Head of this lineage; Tobirama had forgotten that. He's not sure _why_ she is when it's been made fairly clear that her sister's father-in-law Echigo was the Lineage Head before her, but if so then her role as bereaved matriarch is to let everybody arrange everything for her while being seen mourning visibly. Properly her husband should be here to support her, but Madara is away on a diplomatic visit to the Aburame and a message sent to inform him of what has just happened probably won't reach him until evening, if not tomorrow morning.

Tobirama will hopefully find out why _he_ is being included like this at some point. However that point does not seem likely to arrive soon.

Time passes. Kamui arrives to carry Makuma to the wet nurse, summoned by some Uchiha or other because of _course_ he's not going anywhere right now, and he is served more food. Kamui them brings Makuma _back_ –along with additional supplies and bedding, which is a relief but still confusing– assures Tobirama that she has 'let people know where he is' and leaves again before he can extract further details.

The sun sets. Dinner is provided and eaten. Futons are laid out for Kita and her children in a large side room –Kita has already dozed off against his side twice by this point– and Midori firmly tucks in the children, then rolls her older sister into the bed before turning expectantly to Tobirama. He decides then and there that if the entire Uchiha clan has gone mad, he has to enforce the line himself.

"Tōnari, Kyōnari," he asks the leopards who have kept vigil for him thus far, "would you stay with Kita?" He is _not_ getting into that bed with Madara's wife. He would never _dream_ of disrespecting her so and she is not even awake for him to ask her feelings on the matter.

Tōnari moves to bracket the children's futon, poking them into order as they settle; Kyōnari sprawls over the blankets and leans against Kita's back, keeping watch as Sukumo wriggles sleepily into her mother's embrace and Takahara reaches past his sister to grip his mother's arm. The new baby is freshly swaddled in blankets and asleep in a shallow box above Kita's head, secure and out of the way so that no-one can accidentally roll on top of him. "I would like a futon to set across the shōji, please," Tobirama requests coolly. If their grandmother had not just died he would accuse Midori of playing a trick of some kind on her older sister.

The younger woman frowns at him vaguely for a moment and then her eyes widen with realisation. "Nobody explained this, did they?"

"No, they have not." He would very _much_ like an explanation, please.

Midori closes the shōji and leans closer. "Neesan activated her Mangekyō for you," she says matter-of-factly. "That means you're one of her heart's treasures, along with her children, so you're family. She's head of our lineage because she activated her Mangekyō, which you were part of, so you should be here to support her."

So yes, this _is_ Uchiha insanity, but it is pervasive and culturally-accepted insanity that nobody is going to look oddly at him over. He also now knows why _Kita_ is head of her lineage rather than her sister's father-in-law, but that's less important right now. "Heart's treasures?" He inquires delicately.

Midori shifts. "I'm sure you've noticed that we Uchiha all obsess," she murmurs lightly, smoothing down her kimono and eyes dropping, "particularly over specific people. Madara-sama over your brother, for instance, although honoured brother-in-law is doing his best to smother his heart there. We love quickly and fiercely and sometimes unwisely, but we can't stop it. We just have to live with it." She pauses. "It's nothing inherently to do with physical desire, Tobirama, I promise; we just _care_. Care deeply and desperately and need the other person to care in return."

Tobirama can _see_ it and it makes so _much_ sense. "Madara is trying _not_ to care for my brother."

Midori nods. "Because he doesn't care back," she agrees quietly. "He's never going to care back, in fact; he doesn't even pay enough attention to see how _much_ Madara-sama cares. So Madara-sama has to work at caring less, or your brother's lack of caring would drive him mad." She smiles. "I'm very glad it's you Neesan has let into her heart; you never hesitate to listen to her and reciprocate in words and deeds."

"So I'm here because your sister considers me to be like another brother to her," Tobirama attempts, trying to fit words around a concept that is new and deeply alien to him. If Kita were a warrior he'd call this the bond between combat partners, but he's never actually fought alongside her so that doesn't really fit either. But that is as close as he can get. "But what about Madara?" It's as plain as the noses on both their faces that Madara and Kita are _deeply_ in love, yet that relationship doesn't rate a mention?

"Neesan and her husband built their love; it didn't come naturally," Midori replies. "They put _years_ of work into loving one-another and what they have is so very special for that, but that's not the same as setting eyes on somebody, hearing them speak and knowing almost instantly that they are a person that you want to keep in your life forever and support in all their endeavours." She pauses. "With that in mind, _are_ you going to share the futon?"

"I'd rather not, in case Madara comes back during the night," Tobirama demurs. And for a great many other reasons, but that is excuse enough.

"I'll fetch you one then. Did Kamui bring up clothes for you to wear tomorrow?"

Tobirama checks the umbrella bag his wife's beloved provided, unloading it onto a side table; yes, she has. She has even included his own mourning kimono and his entire wash set, how thoughtful. "When will the funeral be?"

"Tomorrow," Midori says immediately. "Izuna will oversee it if Madara isn't back. The aunties have washed and dressed the body and we're not remotely short of wood, so the pyre will probably be in the morning."

"So soon?" That's a very quick turn-around.

Midori smiles a little bitterly. "We rather got into the habit of quick funerals after Madara-sama became Outguard Head."

There is nothing Tobirama can say there, so he says nothing; the reminder of the pain he caused the Uchiha with his past choices is well-worn and lacks the bite it once had. Midori bows slightly and goes to fetch him a full-sized futon.

Madara does indeed return in the middle of the night; Tobirama takes a moment to feel vindicated in his life choices when the other man almost trips over him in his haste, then rolls over and goes back to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The poetry is original, and all my own.

This is the second time that Kita has had to contend simultaneously with both bereavement and a newborn, and Madara was once again absent when he needed to be supporting his wife. He can't let it happen again; he needs to go over his duties –and Ohabari-oba's as well, since the village has rather tangled up Outguard and Homeguard– and do some permanent delegation. The clan is now too large, too spread out, and his diplomatic responsibilities are too numerous and varied for the two of them to do everything themselves.

He will make that this winter's primary task; a few months to pin down details, consider candidates, delegate and make sure those people know what they're doing. Time also to catch up with the work that will fall by the wayside as he comforts his wife and children, so they know they have his support. Because Madara knows his priorities: family comes first. If he can't look after his own family he has no business trying to lead a clan.

He ends up sitting down with Ohabari-oba a bit over a week later; E had her baby the day after Kita's grandmother's funeral –a boy– so everything was chaotic for several days running. Izuna isn't much help right now, but Madara can excuse that. He knows all too well the excitement of a new child and this is Izuna's first –and likely only– son. His little brother will settle back into his skin as the lack of uninterrupted sleep sets in.

"The clan is a third larger than it was when we made the treaty," Madara begins, cradling his teacup, "so we have almost as many children under the age of six as we do aged between six and sixteen. The Outguard is full to bursting –about forty veterans have retired to care for their children, but I have eighty warriors between sixteen and twenty-one now– and there are another forty currently in training, which puts total numbers at two-hundred and thirty. That is far too many; we don't have enough missions to keep them all busy and I'm not about to initiate some mercenary pillaging in Water Country just because my warriors are _bored."_ Part of why so many are still joining the Outguard is that his warriors are not shy about saying how much they are really enjoying how _interesting_ the new missions are, along with the security of very low chances of death and maiming. Peace with the Senju makes travelling many times safer, so certain individuals are joining simply to travel; he needs to re-establish the clan's trading branch and hand off those duties to a suitable deputy, but first he needs to make sure the trading branch will not be a soft target should the gradually increasing political unrest lead to fighting once more. Requiring its members to have full Outguard training and maintain combat standards, perhaps?

"The village complicates matters," Ohabari-oba points out. "Shinobi from the smaller clans go from mission to mission because they are few in number with a widely-spread client base, many of whom pay less and lie more because a clan with only ten adults cannot afford to turn down paying work, no matter how risky it is. Those smaller clans also do not have the knowledge to run a farm or the money to pay for apprenticeships for their children, but our young hotheads see only that _they_ do not spend two weeks training and doing chores for every three days in the field and feel hard-done-by in comparison."

"I am going to have to raise standards," Madara decides, "or else change how training is arranged. We haven't had a proper Homeguard in almost a decade, but if I divided out applicants so that for every two in the Outguard one was placed with the Homeguard, could that work?" It would restore the numbers to more or less what he remembers them being before, but do any of his warriors have the skills that a true Homeguard _needs_? That's never been his responsibility so he has no way of knowing.

Ohabari-oba frowns, tapping her fingers on her teacup. "I would have to make more detailed inquiries," he muses, "but it _might_ be effective. I assume you would then be returning local patrols to the Homeguard as a responsibility?"

"That is the plan, yes." It will be one less thing for him to deal with, which also helps.

"I think division of responsibilities should be by aptitude rather than numbers," Ohabari-oba decides firmly. "Patrol requires short bursts of speed and very high levels of awareness, for instance, as well as solid woodcraft and trap skills. Officially re-establishing the combat arm of the Homeguard will help, as certain people may transfer in of their own volition; more parents, for instance." She pauses. "Would the Homeguard be operating within the village as well?"

Madara shakes his head; that would be politically insensitive, making it seem as though they are policing their vassals and allies. "They would be patrolling the wider clan lands and assisting the charcoal burners with forest management, as well as checking in on those clan members living _in_ the village and making sure they have everything they need. Potentially helping out at the training fields as well; that was a feature of my childhood that seems to have fallen by the wayside." He knows Kita learned a lot of from off-duty warriors as well, but that doesn't seem to be happening anymore.

"It doesn't help that half the children train in the village nowadays."

"If we establish a Homeguard post _in_ the village, it should make countering that a bit easier." Several posts even; the village is getting rather large.

Ohabari-oba sniffs. "And who _is_ keeping order in the village, nephew?"

Madara sighs. "Obasan, you are right that we _do_ need a village police force, but there can't be just Uchiha in it. That would foster resentment. Once our clan is in order and I'm not dragging young warriors out of scrapes every other day I can see about entrusting the formation of an inter-clan police force to somebody, but I can't do that yet. My own house has to be in order first." Never mind all the other things he needs to delegate elsewhere to make space for planning, presenting and then confronting the politics of such a thing…

"Have Hidaka do it," Ohabari-oba says abruptly. "Now Hikaku has Kōki-kun to inherit the Yatagarasu he's been at loose ends. He has the training for it and he's young enough to both be willing to listen to more experienced people telling him what will and won't work, and to have his inevitable mistakes forgiven as youthful hastiness he'll grow out of in time."

Madara considers it. Hidaka is nineteen, and while he does have the bare minimum of weapons' training he's never belonged to the Outguard. That's a good thing in this case: the trick to managing large numbers of drunk or grumpy off-duty shinobi is to de-escalate, not have your first instinct be to draw a weapon. Hidaka knows all about de-escalation, having been taught extensively by Tsunimi on how to be a good Lineage Head and helping Hikaku a lot with the political and social side of his Yatagarasu responsibilities.

He's also been summarily replaced by his two-year-old nephew as heir to their lineage regardless of his self-evident competence, so it would be a smart idea to give him responsibilities which make use of his considerable skills before he gets into mischief out of boredom or self-pity. Madara has a feeling he's starting to be interested in courtship too, so giving him something he can feel proud of will help there as well. Allowing his cousin to build up the project from scratch will compensate in part for the headache of having to establish procedures, standardise punishments for common minor crimes and so on; the resulting achievements will be his from the very start, rather than as a result of somebody else's efforts that he is carrying on.

"I will offer it to Hidaka after talking to Hashirama and the other Clan Heads," Madara agrees. "They will probably want to assign their own clan members to it, but I can point out that an Uchiha has to be at least nominally in charge due to our duty as liege-lords." He pauses, an idea coming to him. "And I should talk to Kita; those knock-out seals of hers would be perfect for this."

Ohabari-oba huffs, her lips twitching. "So they would; very embarrassing for the victims as well, seeing as they don't actually need chakra to apply. You could recruit civilians too."

That would be _excellent_ actually; make the police force less intimidating for the villagers who don't belong to shinobi clans and encourage them to feel more included. More fūinjutsu applications and demand also means more opportunities for people to learn sealing; Kita has two new apprentices already, but this might encourage a few others to at least learn to reproduce the clan's existing seals even if they never become fluent enough to create their own.

"Well, between the Homeguard and a new police force our young people should all be kept busy," Madara decides. "I am going to delegate all diplomatic negotiations short of addressing the daimyo to Izuna –he'll be good at them– and maybe see about talking to our craftsmen about new ways we could specialise. There's no point in peace if all our young people are still trying to be warriors, so clearly I need to find new and interesting things for them to be doing with their off-time." And potentially encourage them to find careers elsewhere.

"More focus on the arts, perhaps?" Ohabari-oba suggests. "I don't believe the village has anybody making musical instruments, but we do have all the materials for it."

That is an excellent idea; music makes life more enjoyable and if the village has music, it's a small step from there to plays and other performances. He knows Ohabari-oba enjoyed those when she was younger, and travelled rather frequently with the trading branch in order to see a range of plays back when he was a child. "Could you find out if anybody would be interested in learning? I would happily arrange an apprenticeship in the capital; several apprenticeships, even. We can certainly afford it." He would insist on putting the hands-off seal on anybody living outside clan lands though; he wants his clansmen to be safe, which he can't exactly guarantee if they're not living directly under his authority.

"I will see about making a few lists," Ohabari-oba agrees fondly. "Also about arranging space for music lessons; we have plenty of musicians in the clan, so ensuring the children know they _can_ learn would go a way to encouraging more of them to try."

It's true that up until now music has been practiced by either the determinedly gifted –those who demand to be taught regardless of circumstances– and the lineage main families; he and Izuna both had to learn to play shamisen, although he was honestly rather terrible and had been glad for the excuse to give it up when the Senju threat became more pressing. Sharingan cheating is all very well, but he certainly hadn't ever _enjoyed_ playing. Kita had to learn koto after being betrothed to him, although he has a feeling she eventually came to enjoy it, going by all the songs she has composed since then. Hikaku and his brothers are all competent with the biwa –Benten plays kokyū and is actually extremely talented– and Kagutsuchi is determinedly teaching himself to play his lineage's harps, with help from every single person over the age of thirty with sharingan memories of other Kōjin playing various tunes. Oshiki is currently teaching his eldest son to get a tune out of the bone flutes the Yomotsushikone favour as their lineage's instrument of choice, and Kita is teaching the twins to play her koto.

The Toyotama don't have a specific favoured instrument and seem to play everything and anything with strings; Takao has a Wind Country hammer dulcimer and his father preferred an Earth Country guqin. Toshi seems to be taking an interest in that guqin, so Madara suspects that once she's capable with the koto she will investigate the other instrument for herself.

"I should ask whether the minshuku would be willing to formalise musical performances in the evenings," he says after finishing his tea. "That would open people to the idea, as well as encourage those who do play instruments to put themselves forwards. Maybe then they will build their own hall for music and theatre performances."

"We can hope," Ohabari-oba says dryly. "Now, shall we give it a week before meeting again? I think Minakata should be at our next discussion, since it will be him managing all these commitments in six years' time."

"I leave that to you, Obasan," Madara replies tactfully. His aunt isn't really old as such, not even fifty yet, but he can see the grey hairs at her temples. Life has not been particularly kind to her.

* * *

Kita does miss Grandma terribly, but she also knows that Tateshina knew Grandma better than anybody else alive. Her little sister was Grandma's apprentice in weaving, spent hours of every day with her learning and listening, and is no doubt as devastated by Grandma's death as Kita was when Mama died.

So Kita locates Maru, bribes him with a fish dinner so he will supervise both her and Tateshina's older children for a few hours, then invites her sister to visit her for formal tea. She feels more confident in her skills now than she did a decade ago, but she is aware that she has nowhere near mastered the art. Tea is a life's work, a constant mastery of self, and she has a long way to go. She does actually enjoy the art now though.

The ceremony creates calm and order in the here-and-now, a space where her sister is the one waited on, not the one required to care for others. Kita also finds herself sinking into the quiet, letting it fill her and soften the sharp edges of the day. She loves her ten-day-old son so _very_ much, but grief is exhausting and she has five other children to care for as well as Benten to keep an eye on. Her oldest girl may be almost an adult now but she still needs care, if only to remind her to care for herself.

After the thick tea, the sweets and the thin tea, Tateshina sets her bowl down and smiles ever so slightly. "Thank you, Aneki."

"Whatever I can do for you, Shina," Kita tells her gently. "Feel free to send Neishi and Takara my way whenever you like, and Biei as well once he's old enough. Takahara and Sukumo should spend time with their cousins and Mitama certainly loves having more playmates."

"Won't Takahara feels terribly outnumbered, surrounded by a sister and two girl cousins with the only other boy just two years old?"

Kita makes a faux-virtuous expression. "Takahara's other close cousins around his age are all girls, Tateshina; he's used to it." Tokimi who is older than her son and very firmly the leader when she comes over to play with him, Hijiri's daughter Hatsu –whose conception prompted her parents' hasty wedding– who is a few months younger and Hikaku's other daughter Sachimi, who recently turned five. The boys her son plays with most often are Kagami, Kanmuri's oldest, Omusha, Oshiki's firstborn –whose conception _also_ prompted a hasty autumn wedding not so long after the treaty– and Otofuke, who is the fourth child and second son of Madara's second cousin Obihiro.

Takahara also spends quite a lot of time with Madoma, but that's more due to Tobirama bringing his nephew over a lot now that Hashirama is finally spending time with Tsunama –training him, really is there _nothing_ else the man can think of doing with the poor boy– and Madoma is old enough to find it unfair that he's not allowed to join in. Kita isn't sure whether Tobirama has _told_ his brother that Madoma is participating in the Uchiha clan's preparatory lessons, but the slim and slightly awkward plum-haired Senju seems happy and that's what matters.

All of which Tateshina already knows, but the soft teasing is a good sign.

"Well in that case, I shall not hesitate to impose," her sister murmurs demurely, eyes dancing. "Especially if Tobirama will be supervising; my girls should get to spend more time with their Bira-oji."

Half the clan's children younger than ten call Tobirama that now; it's adorable how the man visibly melts behind his stern façade when addressed that way. "I'm sure he'll be delighted." Tobirama's incredibly good with children, being patient and willing to listen attentively to childish babble in a way that is not remotely patronising; children notice that kind of thing.

"So how many bruises do you think our children will be given back to us with?" Tateshina asks idly. "Maru is not exactly the most attentive of babysitters."

"Not so many as all that," Kita replies, defending her choice of supervision. "Maru knows there's a fine line between educational and damaging and takes care to ensure everything remains firmly in the former sphere. There'll be mud and scratches and snow, yes a few bruises and likely twigs in odd places, but they'll have fun and will have had a proper afternoon nap first." Maru takes a cat's view on child-rearing, which is that kittens should be supervised but encouraged to make their own discoveries. Kita's all in favour, honestly; Takahara _adores_ the young man and is always on his best behaviour for him, which Maru is clearly bemused by but will happily take advantage of.

Her sister eyes her. "Many things suddenly become clear," she muses archly. "You're letting your children run wild on _purpose_ , aneki; for shame."

"You say that like Haha wasn't letting me run around unsupervised aged three and having me take Naka with me once I was seven," Kita says dryly. "I was climbing trees for silk when I was six with no supervision at all; I feel I have the upper hand here, insisting my children have an actual adult in their general vicinity." Maru is twenty years old after all, if no less casually feline than he was at fourteen.

Tateshina pauses. "Yes, you were, weren't you?" she agrees, suddenly bemused. "I can't believe I forgot that."

"You were learning to tend to the caterpillars," Kita says quietly; she's not surprised her sister forgot. It was a long time ago and Tateshina hadn't exactly been the adventurous type, happier staying close to home and sitting with Grandma to watch her weave.

Tateshina is clearly remembering the same thing Kita is; her nose goes pink and her eyes water as she fumbles for her handkerchief.

* * *

Madara sits down with Kita after the children's bedtime two days before their new son's naming ceremony so as to ask an important question:

"What do you want to call our son?"

Kita bits her lip. "I'm not actually sure, husband. I was thinking about Minami, but it doesn't fit our feisty little gentleman at all. Neither do the other names I was considering. You?"

Madara hands her a scroll from the archive, already opened at a specific section, and taps one of the lines. His wife blinks, then frowns.

"Well, I can see several reasons _why_ you'd pick this, traditional and not," she admits slowly after a pause, "and I do like it, but are you _sure_?"

"I like the name, I like the references and it works well with the other children's names," Madara says simply. He has all manner of other reasons too, but Kita knows about those already. They're fairly self-evident. "And the blessing it implies is one I want for our littlest son." He's such a tiny baby and seems even smaller than Benten was as an infant, which might be because Madara's fully grown now and has larger hands, but it's still worrying. This name will speak against his fears and give him confidence that his youngest will not be the first of his children to die. The clan has seen far fewer infant deaths since Kita's seals became prevalent, but 'fewer' is not 'none;' being born early makes the odds for his new son's survival significantly less favourable. Not that the odds are everything; the tiny boy being energetic and eager to feed is a good sign.

"Well, as I said, I have nothing else in mind and I _do_ like it, so yes," Kita decides firmly before glancing slyly at him. "And I'm sure you will have a lot of fun explaining your reasoning to everybody else. Or not."

Madara grins. Oh, he has no intention whatsoever of explaining his thought process in full –doing so would acknowledge a messy political problem he's hoping will unravel itself in due course without his direct intervention– but there is plenty he _can_ say that is completely truthful and entirely accurate. After all, it was Kita who taught him that there's no problem with having six different reasons for doing things and only admitting to two of them.

* * *

The Uchiha name their children at two weeks, in a ceremony that is generally close-family-only at their clan shrine. However Madara is the nominal clan head, as Outguard Head and head of the Uchiha's most prominent and powerful lineage, so he has to put on more of a show for his children: all three of the naming ceremonies held since the treaty have been clan-wide with a lot of free food for all, although no outsiders have been permitted to join in. Tobirama therefore does not find out what Madara has actually _named_ his son until after Kamui returns from the party to tell Chika, who then turns around and tells all the Senju she can find _well_ before Tobirama finishes the pre-fūinjutsu class –advanced and obscure kanji along with various traditional calligraphy styles– he is teaching that morning.

Tobirama is therefore intercepted at the schoolhouse door by his pouting older brother and a nosy audience of variously distant relatives as his preteen students are streaming out of the building towards parents, guardians and older siblings.

"Tobi, do you _know_ what Madara's named his new son?"

"I have not the faintest idea anija," Tobirama replies dryly as he put on his sandals. "Something very traditional, I assume." He knows enough about Uchiha now to know that Madara and Kita's naming sense is traditional enough for certain lower-ranking clansmen to consider it positively archaic.

Hashirama huffs. "Well he's named him after _you_ , otōto!"

Tobirama freezes just past the threshold as his brother continues to complain about how it's not fair, he named one of _his_ sons after Madara so Madara could reciprocate and how Madara's second son is even named after Mito, but none of that really registers. Tobirama just _can't_ make sense of this. Why would Madara name his son after _him_?

"What's the boy's name?" He asks faintly.

"Shirakami," Tōka says cheerfully, clapping him on the shoulder. "Spelled with the kanji for 'white' and 'hair'. Congratulations!"

Well. That's. Tobirama has no idea what to say or think. "That can't be right," he manages, just as Madara arrives to collect Toshi and Azami. Who would have been _at_ the naming earlier this morning, if not the following celebration, now that he thinks about it…

"Madara! Why did you name your son after _Tobi_? I named Madoma after you!"

Madara glares. "You named your son after _windows_ Hashirama! Or the wall between windows at best; how's that anything to do with _my_ name?" Madara's name is written 'freckled' or 'blotchy;' Tobirama isn't sure what happened to Uchiha Tajima to make the man think that was a good name for his firstborn. Does Madara have a birthmark somewhere?

Wait, that's not at all a relevant or helpful line of thought. He doesn't even _want_ to know that. Tobirama resolutely turns his thoughts elsewhere.

Hashirama pouts at his friend, gloom-cloud coalescing overhead. "It sounds similar!"

"It does _not_!" Madara snaps. "What I name my children has _nothing_ to do with you; we have a traditional clan listing which most parents consult, if they don't outright name their child after a favourite ancestor! In the major lines at least; the minor families use common Fire Country names as well."

"But you named your sons after Mito and Tobi!"

" _Nothing_ about my sons has _anything_ to do with your wife, what _are_ you talking about?!" Madara demands, firmly steering his girls towards Obihiro, who is collecting his own daughters Nari and Hoshi, tension singing in his shoulders as he steers them away from the schoolhouse. Tobirama is staying well out of this argument, although he can't help but notice that Madara is yet to _deny_ that Shirakami has been named with him in mind.

"Mitama!" Hashirama wails, chakra spiking and spreading around him like a broken water pipe.

"That's after my _great-uncle_ , you blockhead!" Madara roars, not giving an inch. "He introduced me to falconry! 'Mitama' is a traditional name from my great-grandmother's lineage, along with Moreya my _other_ great-uncle and Hachimantai my _grandfather_! It is _nothing_ to do with your _wife_!"

All the children are gone, hustled well out of the blast radius by parents and other concerned adults. Madara's chakra is swirling hotly, fiercely contained but straining angrily and Anija's is as sprawling and suffocating as a wet blanket.

"Oh," Hashirama mutters as Madara's words register. "But, but Shirakami!"

Madara grinds his teeth audibly. "It is another _traditional_ name, _blockhead_ ," he grits out. "A lucky name for younger sons, wishing them long life. Which I thought was _important_ , seeing as he was _born early_."

Hashirama shrinks into himself, chakra subsiding as shame at his utterly disrespectful entitlement finally kicks in. "I'm sorry, Madara."

" _Good_." Madara's chakra settles and his sharingan finally, belatedly activates. "I will _not_ be naming any of my children after you, _ever_ ; it's inappropriate considering our respective ranks and disrespects my wife, who has made it clear she wishes _all_ our children to have traditional Uchiha names. Clear?"

"Yes, Madara." Hashirama is now looking distinctly contrite, but no amount of regret can make this very public fight not have happened.

"Good. I never want to have this conversation ever again." Madara vanishes in a rush of chakra. Without ever specifying whether 'Shirakami' _was_ intended to reference Tobirama, traditional Uchiha name or not. Madara is quite shockingly honest about the things that matter to him, so that lack of denial is somewhat telling.

Tobirama is going to visit the onsen. It's easier to get uninterrupted thinking time while sitting in a pool of hot water and he's not due to collect Makuma from the wet-nurse for another two hours.

When he finally fetches his son and heads up to the Uchiha compound to ask Madara about it privately, the man looks him in the eye with a deceptively mild smile and asks, "You delivered him, what were you expecting?"

Tobirama flushes scarlet at the reminder and escapes to collect Mitama along with Tateshina's youngest two –Biei and Fushimi– from their naps, so they can play together with Makuma for an hour or so under his eye.

* * *

Her husband has been very attentive and caring in the aftermath of her bereavement. Possibly a little _too_ attentive; it is barely spring and Kita is very definitely pregnant. The prospect of going through all that _again_ without a suitable interval to regain her muscle tone and focus on Shirakami is extremely annoying; as soon as she works out what has happened Kita goes to talk to E. Her former student has got her contraceptive seal working –it's very simple, snuffing out any life trying to enter the womb– and Kita does not take many days to learn it.

Once this baby is delivered she will be writing that seal on herself and taking a nice long break from pregnancy. Several years, definitely; possibly as many as five, so as to take the time to raise the ones she has and do a bit more to help her husband. She knows matters have been increasingly challenging on the political side of things lately –little things all, but small problems grow like weeds when left unattended– and that Hashirama has not been helping.

On the positive side, Konohagakure now has a police force. Hidaka is running it, there are people from all the village's clans in it and some civilians as well, all using chakra-infused nets –an evolution of her chakra-infused hemp thread that she would never have come up with herself– and her time-out seals to swiftly restrain and neutralise anybody who is drunk or misbehaving so they can be dragged off to cool down in the new cells fitted with Senju chakra suppression seals.

Hidaka's choice of action to take _after_ his prisoners have cooled off and calmed down is to assign unpaid labour as a penalty. Generally something unpleasant like digging out the processed waste from the filtration stations and shovelling it on the village's fields, dredging the flood defence ditches upstream, scrubbing algae off the bridge or doing laundry for the clinic. Yes, Tobirama's now-ubiquitous laundry jutsu _does_ make washing clothes generally much faster and more efficient, but cleaning blood, shit and other dubious bodily fluids off sheets and smocks is never going to be _enjoyable_.

Generally speaking, these jobs are well-rewarded in either goods or money to make up for the unpleasantness and reinforce their value to the village. Having to do the work for free for a week because you got drunk and started a fight makes the prospect of over-indulging far less attractive.

Today Kita is visiting Mito with her four younger children, so Takahara, Sukumo and Mitama can run around the garden of the Senju Clan's new main house –built a bit off to one side of the western side of the village, beside the sprawling Senju tree farm– with Madoma and Menka while the two mothers catch up after the winter.

Shirakami is doing very well; he's almost four months old and not noticeably any smaller than his siblings were at that age. It's a relief when the first two months of his life were so very cold that Kita ended up strapping him to her chest and only putting him down at night, in the box-crib now outfitted with thermostat seals to ensure he won't chill. Now it's spring she's moved him to the toddler futon that lies beside her own, so it's easier to feed him during the night.

It's a nice day. Mito has laid out cushions in the pavilion overlooking the main garden, so they can keep the children in sight even as the little ones run all around the flowerbeds and try to climb the trees.

"Sukumo, no moving the rocks; this is Mito-san's garden," Kita says, raising her voice to carry and letting out a needle-thin spike of Disappointed Intent. Sukumo instantly straightens, hands clasping behind her back.

"Yes Haha!" She waits a few moments, then as soon as Kita turns away her childish chakra turns focused, looking for something else to build a house out of. Unless she gets distracted and tries to ambush her brother and Madoma instead, she'll probably end up using leaf-litter and branches.

"Your little ones are terribly energetic," Mito says fondly. "Not that mine aren't, but after all that talk about Yin nature versus Yang I was expecting Uchiha children to be more introspective."

"Oh, they're not running around just to run around," Kita says wryly. "Takahara will be even now weaving a grand epic of how he's leading a squad of warriors to hunt down a bijuu that has been destroying villages, Sukumo will either lay out a miniature tea room with twigs and mud or get drawn into her brother's game and Mitama is currently so fascinated by birds that he'll find whichever birds' nests there are in your garden and spend the next hour or two watching them from under a bush. Their minds are running a mile a minute and throwing out hundreds of specific points that they will then recount to me in exquisite detail and expect me to remember." Her children are complete handfuls, every last one of them; it's delightful but occasionally exhausting.

"Oh my." Mito smiles. "No wonder Madoma is so taken with them, he's always been a thoughtful boy. Menka's more easily distracted though; hopefully Sukumo won't get too cross when she is inevitably interrupted."

Menka is copper-haired and endlessly bouncy, a sharp contrast to quiet and serious Madoma. Tsunama falls somewhere in the middle, strawberry blonde and cheerful but also rather introspective, although Kita suspects a good part of the latter is down to Hashirama's extremely inconsistent relationship with his eldest.

Which, unfortunately, is something Kita can do very little about. "Your son is a delight," she tells Mito warmly instead. "Both of them are, in fact; it's always a joy to have them visit."

Mito hums and pours the tea. "How is the trade dispute with Sea Country progressing?"

"Poorly, in that it seems unlikely we will resolve it peacefully," Kita admits. "Cinnamon is one of their primary exports and that Hashirama has worked out how to grow cassia in bulk challenges their monopoly, since the flavour profile is very similar. I do believe it will settle in time, but I suspect there will be assassination attempts and sabotage missions first." Mito's security is excellent, but she needs to know about potential threats in order to activate the more dangerous sections of the defences placed around her home.

"Well, the Akimichi _did_ warn my husband that the spice market was somewhat cut-throat," Mito sighs, "which of course he disregarded, or at least did not take seriously enough. I foresee issues with the star anise as well, likely from Lightning Country; at least the Akimichi are already growing all the spices which aren't from trees, so he hasn't even attempted them." There's no real reason Kita can think of why Hashirama's bloodline wouldn't work on _all_ kinds of vegetation, but the Senju Clan Head only ever bothers with actual trees.

"If he tries to expand into the incense market he'll have the Hyūga and half the capital willing to promote our case to the daimyo," Kita says a little wryly. "Sandalwood is terribly difficult to grow –it's native to the south coast of Wind and a few south-sea islands like Moon Country– and agarwood comes from aloe trees, which nobody has ever tried to cultivate commercially. There are a few sandalwood plantations in Demon Country as well I believe, but the trees take eighty years to become fully mature and need to be interspersed with other species." Sandalwood is partially parasitic.

Mito narrows her eyes. "You've been thinking about this."

Kita smiles serenely. "Of course: tree husbandry could sustain your clan for centuries. There are a few other decently valuable incense species –black myrobalan for instance– and once the trees are grown, the plantation just has to be curated and maintained." Not at all dependent on the person with mokuton to keep it going.

"Has my husband not already antagonised enough people, Kita?" Mito seems amused though.

"He has thus far mostly managed to antagonise people that the daimyo won't bother to defend either him or our clans from," Kita points out. "Make taking our part financially wise while reducing Fire Country's dependence of foreign imports and suddenly he will see attacking us as 'questioning his authority' and take suitable steps."

"Does the cassia not do that already?"

"Not really: the daimyo's court is not going to stop buying Sea Country cinnamon when it has a more delicate flavour and is easier to crush for garnishes and seasoning. It's poorer people who buy cassia, wanting the flavour of cinnamon at a much lower cost, so a lot of mid-ranking samurai and merchants will choose cassia over cinnamon if they can find it because then they can afford more of it, both to eat and to burn as incense, even though it has to be ground in a mill to be edible and is significantly more toxic in large doses. Sandalwood however is a costly luxury for perfumes, incense, adornments and furniture, while agarwood is a status symbol so potent that noble families will keep a scrap of wood for centuries, only ever displaying it for guests and never burning it."

Mito is now giving off a distinctly scheming vibe; Kita has a feeling Hashirama will be expanding his efforts to grow a more diverse range of valuable trees soon. She opens her mouth–

–and turns sharply to glare down the garden at her eldest son. "Takahara! Don't do that!"

* * *

Madara sits at his desk and carefully reads through the intelligence reports from outside Fire Country, ignoring Tobirama picking through the literature and poetry on the shelves behind him. Tobirama's here because he actually _brought_ some of the reports, passed on from various Uzumaki and Hatake –the latter have just recently started making cautious overtures to Tobirama personally– and collating that information with the myriad small details from all the many other nations within a week's run takes a lot of time.

Tobirama is by now used to Madara's sharingan-enhanced ability to memorise vast quantities of information and bring it all together to provide a cohesive picture, so he is content to amuse himself until Madara is ready to debate the details and their implications so as to devise an appropriate strategy for them to enact together.

"Increased upheaval," he murmurs, half to himself, as he sets another scroll aside.

"With both the Senju and the Uchiha partially removed from play and the various more influential nomadic clans also reducing their dependence on mercenary work, many of the smaller client nations are becoming bolder in protesting those they pay tribute to," Tobirama agrees, tone absent. "They no longer fear being utterly crushed by a sudden and overwhelming shinobi force, so are more willing to speak out against their oppressors. When my brother finds out he is probably going to want to offer support, no matter that doing so will firmly alienate the Wind Daimyo for the next half-century at _least_." Not much at all grows in Wind, especially not in its vast and arid interior, so the Wind Daimyo derives much of his court's foodstuffs from tribute taken from the chain of small nations trapped between the desert and the mountains of Earth Country, as well as the client-states to the west. In exchange for 'protection' from incursions from the north, those nations send food and other goods into Wind.

Evidently the daimyo of Wind has been getting a little greedy of late, or possibly simply neglectful and complacent. Thinking back, Madara can see the pattern; marked by absences, not presences, but no less a pattern for that. A thought crosses his mind and yes, the same pattern holds true for the client-states of Earth: negligence, more or less benign but negligence nonetheless, and a slow increase in local unrest and corruption as a result. The problems have been stagnating for decades, but it is only now that fewer shinobi clans are easily available for hire, either to put down rebellion or assassinate particularly hated bureaucrats, that the local merchants and minor daimyos are starting to make a fuss and demand _systemic_ improvements.

This is a consequence of peace he did not foresee. However there isn't really anything he can do about it; it's really _not_ his business unless those minor daimyo try to hire Konohagakure shinobi. Which may yet happen and if it does, as Tobirama says, Hashirama will involve himself with all the grace and subtlety of a rutting buffalo in a porcelain warehouse.

"Where do we draw the line?" He muses as he opens another coded letter. "Do we refuse to involve ourselves and stand back, watching others die when we know we could make a difference, or do we join the fray, change the narrative and make new enemies?" The Uchiha are no longer a mercenary clan, dependent on their clients for survival: whoever they ended up fighting would know that his clan were not simply doing so to survive, but had deliberately _picked_ a side. They could easily end up antagonising the Wind or Earth daimyo –or _both_ of them– which could have unpleasant effects both at court and on future trade agreements.

The problem with increased power and influence is the responsibility to wield it appropriately.

"We could offer those suffering the effects of corruption the services of our investigative teams," Tobirama suggests from behind him. "Not taking sides on the battlefield, but providing support and acting as witnesses to the ongoing struggle for justice under law. Both daimyos may well decide to pay a little more attention to their bureaucrats' embezzlement once they know both Uchiha and Senju are taking an interest in proving their misdeeds."

"We could feasibly claim it's for trade reasons too," Madara agrees, picking up a different letter, this one tiny characters on a thin strip of paper delivered by crow. "The tariffs for transporting goods along the valley roads between Earth and Wind have been rising unevenly; our caravans are still paying the original rate, but other merchants who trade with us are suffering." With the clan's adult numbers finally recovering, he's been able to start re-establishing the Uchiha's trading arm under his cousin Obihiro. Joining a caravan is also something for the Outguard to do, since they can travel faster than civilians can and carry more goods. Most of the trading arm is in fact made up of people with Outguard training.

Madara is still firing and painting ceramics of various kinds, but it's very nice to no longer be responsible for managing _all_ the merchant missions on top of regular Outguard commissions, village matters and spending time with his wife and children. Takahara is old enough now to start learning Amaterasu history and responsibilities as well as how to read and write, so Madara has to make time for that as well.

He doesn't begrudge it; his eldest son is a delight. The hard part is making sure his younger children don't feel left out.

"It could work, but I'd be more comfortable sending double squads," he admits. "A lot of these daimyos seem to be building up their armies and shinobi or not, one squad can't be expected to deal with that kind of thing."

"But two can?" Tobirama sounds dryly amused.

"Two squads can sleep in shifts, or carry out a pincer movement without leaving any single warrior isolated," Madara replies calmly. "We can also send one squad from each clan, maximising their available skill-set for the occasion. Considering the trade implications, the Akimichi may want to get involved as well, by providing letters of introduction to local contacts if nothing else." The Akimichi have customers everywhere. They've likely already started to feel the effects of the unrest and also very probably are already dealing with it in their own way.

He should arrange a meeting with Akimichi Chōkō, seeing as the man is now permanently resident in Konohagakure. His father the Clan Head is not, obviously, but Akimichi Chōtai felt that the opportunities offered by having his son represent him to the other clans gathered in the village was more than worth the risk of his son residing outside his own clan's lands. It likely helps that Nara Shikari and Yamanaka Inosuke are here too, along with their wives and a decent retinue of fellow clansmen.

Considering the Aburame are now in the process of establishing a modest residence in Konohagakure, the village really is a hub for shinobi activity in western Fire Country.

Picking up the next scroll, Madara frowns. "Tobirama?"

"Hm?"

"We've seen evidence over the past six years of other shinobi clans banding together like we've done, but some of these reports seem to imply that certain of those alliances are taking on nationalistic identities rather than just familial ones." The Earth Country shinobi in particular; this is the third report mentioning uniforms, despite the differing clan identities of those wearing them.

"Yuta-oba mentioned a letter from a contact referencing a shinobi village called Iwagakure, which is apparently operating with the Earth daimyo's blessing." That letter will be further down the pile somewhere.

Madara pauses. "Are they copying our village's _name_? _Why?_ It's not like everybody hasn't complained at me about the utter lack of originality, and it was mostly about how we can't do anything without felling six trees first!"

"I think outsiders are thinking it being hidden is to do with it being a shinobi settlement."

"But it's a _civilian_ village! Legally, even!" Yes, there are a _lot_ of shinobi living here now, but that doesn't mean anything! It's not like their village even has a _wall_! Yes, there's some very complex fūinjutsu monitoring the wider clan lands now, but it's not defensive. They're living in a _village_ , not a fortress.

"What foreign daimyo is going to believe _that_?"

Tobirama unfortunately has a point. The Fire Daimyo may well have farmed out the responsibility of wrangling all these disparate shinobi clans to Madara –since he was doing it already– but other daimyo reacting to what looks like an increasingly centralised and unified shinobi force amassing in Fire Country are going to want to keep a closer eye on their nations' own shinobi clans, and potentially subsidise those clans in some way to ensure _only_ they have access to their services. They may even force out those clans who refuse to accept such an offer.

This is likely to get very complicated _indeed_.

Behind him Tobirama's chakra jumps through five different emotions in a split-second and is abruptly suppressed; Madara is on his feet and turning as two scrolls bounce across the tatami and the other man fumbles the poem-card box he is holding, almost dropping that as well.

"Tobirama?" Is something wrong?

His guest looks at him wide-eyed and then immediately drops his gaze to the floor, cheeks red. "Sorry," Tobirama mutters; Madara tries to work out what happened. His eyes are drawn to the box; well hell, that's a familiar pattern.

That's the box he keeps Kita's poetry in.

"I should probably have warned you about those," he agrees ruefully, feeling his own face heat slightly. It's not like his wife has stopped writing him erotic haiku now they have children. If anything the poetry has gotten _more_ heated; not everything she writes to him is erotic, but all of it is very definitely personal. There's a reason that box is on the _top_ shelf, out of reach of little hands and above most people's eye-line.

Tobirama firmly shoves the lid onto the box and sets it back on the top shelf with a loud click, still abjectly failing to look Madara in the eye or indeed in his general direction at all. "If I'd _realised_ I wouldn't even have _opened_ it," he mutters irritably at the fusuma, chakra tightly restrained but still giving off a distinctly mortified feel through his body language, "let alone _read_ them." Clearly it had taken him several poems to realise what exactly they were referring _to_.

"Kita's poetry's a little sideways like that," Madara says, deciding that this is the perfect opportunity for some friendly teasing. "It takes a while to get used to the imagery, and then you can't get it out of your head." He does his best not to use his sharingan on his wife's more heated poetic offerings, but they still stick in his mind and surface at random moments. Her choice of metaphors is reliably peculiar, but thinking about them in more depth always reveals deeper implications and subtle undercurrents. Sometimes she _recites_ them at him, which is worse. Ironically, even her most obscene works are _much_ better poetry than the more innocuously aesthetic efforts of her early teens.

Tobirama _hisses_ at him, going even redder. "I," he grits out through his teeth, "am going to talk to my aunt about arranging an inter-clan meeting to discuss the political unrest and its economic repercussions, with an eye to sharing our intelligence resources and deciding on an appropriate response." He stalks out of the room radiating offended dignity, headed for the genkan.

Madara waits until the other man has left the building entirely to burst out laughing. Dear Amaterasu, his _face_!

* * *

 _A battered peach tree  
_ – _scarred fruit, skin forever marked_ –  
 _Flesh sweet on the tongue._

Tobirama is very temped to get blind drunk, even if it means having to feed and dress Makuma through a hangover tomorrow morning. If he gets drunk enough he may manage to drive those poems out of his mind.

 _Hard plains and steep slopes  
Rugged land granted in trust_–  
 _I know every inch_.

Or maybe a concussion would work better. Tobirama is sure Izuna would be _delighted_ to concuss him. He has seen things he never wanted to see and his brain won't let any of it go; it keeps circling back around, speculation sneaking up on him the moment he stops paying attention! He doesn't _want_ to think about it!

 _Scent of a ploughed field  
Seeds blooming in warm darkness_–  
 _My husband is home._

Tobirama slumps against a tree on the outskirts of the village, pinches the bridge of his nose and groans miserably. How could he _possibly_ have thought his awareness of her nocturnal activities with her husband while at the treaty negotiations was the most awkward and embarrassing experience that could ever result from his friendship with Kita? This is so much _worse_ that not even Shirakami's birth and naming can possibly compare. How can he look her in the eye with her poetry ringing in his ears? Poetry he can now see _very clearly_ was written for her husband alone; he should never have even _opened_ that box. _How_ had he missed the innuendo on his first few readings? How on _earth_ had he managed to get nine poems in before the common thread bludgeoned him like one of his brother's out-of-control jutsu?!

Is there such a thing as a memory-locking seal? If not, maybe he should invent one. So he can _stop_ _thinking_ about his friend and her husband and the intimate context of those haiku. He's not attracted to Kita and he's not attracted to Madara _either_ , so why is the thought of them _together,_ of her poetry's _implications_ –

 _Hearth, forge, kiln, lantern_ –  
 _Heat constrained by human hands.  
Not so the wildfire heart._

He is _going_ to make a memory-locking seal. Alcohol first though.

* * *

Madara did his best to comfort Kita after her grandmother died, but it seems he may have been a little _too_ attentive: his wife is pregnant again. Three months pregnant already and Shirakami is only four months old; that's far too close together. Her informing him was followed by her asserting that after this she would be _ensuring_ she has no more children for several years, which Madara is fully in agreement with. Seven children –including the twins but not Benten– is plenty. He hopes this one is a girl though; Kita has given him three sons and he would like another daughter.

Sakurajima has just had her baby –a boy not yet old enough to name– and the child has his father's red sclerae, which looks a little unsettling with the usual Uchiha black-from-birth irises. It's going to look even odder if the boy ever activates his sharingan, but Madara's sure Sakurajima doesn't mind in the slightest; she very clearly adores her baby and her husband is equally delighted to be a father.

Madara is doing his best to deal appropriately with the gradual uptick in unrest in the various neighbouring and more distant nations, but last week Hashirama either discovered or worked out that this is another possible consequence of their clans making peace and came to try and insist that Madara 'help'. Which had led to an increasingly loud discussion of what exactly interfering in these various situations might result in, and then a vicious shouting match four days later after Hashirama got back from sneaking off _alone_ to 'do something about it!'

Then the following day Madara gets summoned down to the village because one of his Outguard has stabbed Hashirama in the lung with a poisoned knife and really, Madara isn't sure he can be impartial because he had been thinking along those lines too.

The culprit is his cousin Kushigamine of all people; Uncle Tsunimi's grandson who –along with his twin Akahari– was in line for the crow contract before Hikaku got his Mangekyō. The boy's not even fifteen yet; _why_ is he stabbing Hashirama?

Beyond the obvious, that is; Hashirama killed Kushigamine's father Bandai about six months before Izuna's injury and the resulting ceasefire. That was seven years ago though; half Kushigamine's lifetime. So why _now_?

The teenager is sitting in the central Homeguard outpost in the village, weapons confiscated but not restrained since he came quietly and didn't make a fuss. Hashirama is being sat on by one of his aunts, who has already thoroughly examined him and is dealing with the poisoning; Kushigamine was exceptionally sneaky there and used mercury in a hollow blade. All the chakra in the world can't counter heavy metal poisoning and Madara is reluctantly impressed, if also rather concerned by how much thought the boy has clearly put into this.

"So what do you have to say for yourself?" He asks once it's just him and his slightly shorter and stringier cousin standing in the outpost's small office. There're no scrolls or shelves or even a desk, just a few cushions in the corner and reinforced shōji to allow light in without letting anybody see inside.

Kushigamine's face is screwed up, his chakra vibrating erratically between fury and misery. "He made Hibara-chan _cry_."

Hibara is Kushigamine's younger sister; she's… eleven. "When did this happen?" Madara asks mildly.

The confrontational set of Kushigamine's shoulders drops slightly in the face of apparent acceptance and he sniffles, scrubbing his eyes with his coat sleeve. "End of November; when he came and shouted at the school. Hibara-chan won't go down to the village for lessons anymore, even though she really liked learning advanced kanji from Bira-sensei, and she's having nightmares about Tōsan dying _again_."

This is _exactly_ the kind of thing Madara had wanted to prevent; _damn_ Hashirama and his petulant determination to make everything about _him_. "Does anybody else know about the nightmares?"

"Chidori-oba knows," Kushigamine mumbles, "but she doesn't know how to make them stop. Hibara-chan's been dreaming that he kills Iwahashi and Akahari and me as well as Tōsan, so w–I thought if I killed him first they'd stop." Iwahashi is the oldest of his late cousin's children.

"We?" Madara pushes; he heard that fumble.

The teenager droops. "Akahari an' me; Satomi-nee bought the mercury for us, but she didn't know what we wanted it for, I swear Madara-sama! The knife was from Kazue-san, she's teaching us poisons."

"Did _she_ know?" Uchiha Kazue is a very tricky woman, and for all she adores her husband Mitake and their three children she's only Uchiha by marriage, so doesn't fully grasp the implied duties adult clansmen have towards their younger kinsmen.

Kushigamine pauses. "We didn't _tell_ her," he says scrupulously, "or talk about it around her, but she might have guessed. She didn't _say_ anything though."

Deniability; just what he always wanted. At least Kushigamine and Akahari both being Outguard means this matter can be resolved just between himself and a Senju representative without having to bring in anybody else, since the issue _is_ quite explicitly personal. Kazue he will deal with separately later. "I will have Kita-san arrange a nightmare-preventing omamori for Hibara-chan," he tells Kushigamine. "If you hear about _any_ other children having nightmares you tell her at _once_ so she can do the same for them as well; that is what those seals are _for_." He hasn't had a proper nightmare in over a decade now and it really does make all the difference. Maybe they should make them standard to _all_ clansmen, not just the Outguard and Homeguard?

Kushgamine's lower lip wobbles. "Sorry, Madara-sama."

Madara can't take it any longer; he steps forward and briskly hugs the poor boy, who instantly breaks down in tears. "Hashirama is _my_ problem, Kushigamine," he says firmly, making an effort to soften his tone a bit as he gently ruffles his sobbing cousin's hair. "If you or anybody else has any issues relating to him you tell _me_ and I will resolve them. Problems with other Senju or any out-clan shinobi you take to Izuna. Let the adults do their jobs, hm?"

"Yes, Madara-sama," Kushigamine finally manages to rasp.

"Now you stay in here; I will have Minakata bring you something to eat while I deal with the Senju," Madara says firmly. "Hopefully they will allow me to arrange your punishment myself, but if not I will be present to oversee it."

"Thank you, Madara-sama."

Madara ruffles Kushigamine's hair one last time then lets himself out of the room, locking the door behind him with a seal. That is more his cousin's safety than anybody else's, but nobody needs to know that.

Now he needs to go drag Akahari out of wherever he's hiding and then see who the Senju have nominated to represent Hashirama. The man can't represent himself; that's actually in the treaty, nominally to prevent bias but mostly because Madara didn't want to have to argue with Hashirama should this exact issue he predicted ever arise. His block-headed soft-hearted friend would try to insist he let the twins off, but this is a teaching moment and punishment is therefore _necessary_ to make sure the lesson sticks. For his cousins, the wider clan _and_ the Senju.

The lesson being, Hashirama is _Madara's_ problem. Every last clansman can come and rant at him about how _stupid_ his friend is being and he will go and bellow at the man for them, but they are _not_ to take matters into their own hands.

Akahari is lurking in the shrubbery beside the clinic with another poisoned knife; Madara confiscates the blade with his umbrella bag and carries the teen off by the scruff of his coat, feet dangling and arms flailing. Once the brat is fully disarmed and locked in alongside his identical twin, Madara heads back up to the clan hall to change; this is a _diplomatic_ meeting, so he can't just wear his armour or an everyday kimono.

* * *

Tobirama is not representing his brother; Uncle Tokonoma is, because during the treaty proceedings Tobirama wrote home to see which of his aunts and uncles would be willing to take up this particular duty and Tokonoma-ji and Rika-ba were the ones to agree. He's allowed to spectate –as are Tōka, Hikaku and a man who introduces himself as Uchiha Enichi, uncle to the two perpetrators– but it's been made very clear that anybody who interrupts Madara and Tokonoma's conversation will be summarily evicted. Hashirama as the injured party isn't even allowed to lurk outside the building.

The meeting begins with a formally-dressed Madara serving thin tea to all present in a proper if brief ceremony, complete with wagashi and politely idle conversation, then regular leaf tea is brought in and the discussion between him and Tokonoma begins in earnest.

It's a relatively short discussion: Madara calmly clarifies what led the young warriors to attempt murder, provides a brief overview of their family background –orphaned aged eight after Hashirama fatally injured their father and the man died slowly over the following six days, their mother killed a year previously on a trading trip– and assures Tokonoma that he has already spoken to the Uchiha Homeguard Head to address the root of this issue, so that no more of his clan's children –although Tobirama is not sure fourteen-year-old warriors count as 'children'– will attempt this kind of thing.

Tokonoma accepts Madara's explanation and the discussion moves onto the subject of punishment. The twins' youth and family background are taken into account as mitigating factors, but that they _successfully_ poisoned Hashirama stands as a fairly serious problem. Tobirama knows Ōka-ba was both furious and reluctantly impressed by the ingenuity of using mercury; it is not a toxin that can be broken down by chakra, so had she not been able to swiftly filter it from his blood using seals it _would_ have caused permanent damage to his nervous system and brain. As it is Hashirama's going to be in medical observation for the next fortnight, so as to make sure everything _was_ caught.

Mercury is toxic at very low concentrations and its effects are swiftly debilitating or fatal. On the one hand, he's rather glad this happened in the village less than a minute away from Ōka-ba and the clinic –imagine if some enemy had tried this in the field and Hashirama had thought he was fine, then dropped dead a few days later– but on the other, his brother just got almost killed much more effectively than Madara has _ever_ managed.

Tobirama can see both sides of this, and while he does rather want to lecture both teens until they cry he can also see how his brother's insensitivity brought this on. Throwing a tantrum by the _school_ was spectacularly misjudged even for Hashirama; he's honestly surprised it's taken this long for anybody to retaliate, and that none of the parents got there first.

The eventual punishment decided upon is that the two young warriors will spend a month suspended from training, filling their time with scrubbing algae off the bridge, picking rocks and cleaning out the village sewage system's waste tanks onto the fields without jutsu. Hashirama also has a four-year ban on going within a block of the school, which Tokonoma agrees will be enforced by seals arranged at Mito's discretion. Madara seems satisfied and Tobirama feels both penalties are appropriate, so hopefully this won't happen again.

Madara also agrees to put checks in place to make it harder for his younger warriors to get their hands on the more dangerous metal poisons unless they are specifically required for missions, which Tobirama thinks is something the Senju should do as well. He'll talk to Ōka-ba about it, since she is going to have strong feelings on the subject for some time so will ensure things happen.

* * *

Kita's little sister is getting married. Married! Little Midori, settling down with a husband! It's so exciting! She's marrying a third cousin on their father's side, one of the charcoal burners, and she seems so pleased in her own quiet Midori way that Kita almost wants to cry. Since the treaty her sister has got involved in growing dye plants and experimenting with mordants, which the Widows' Cooperative has benefitted from, and she also grows bonsai as a hobby. Midori's always been so quietly self-contained Kita wasn't sure she was even _interested_ in marrying, but seeing her with Yuwan it's clear they _adore_ each-other.

The wedding is in June, held during the festival celebrating the eighth anniversary of the village's founding. Everybody has a lot of fun –Madara in particular; he now has six hawks of varying types and Hiuchi has an apprentice to help care for them– and Kita suspects there'll be another flurry of March babies next year. Not from Midori though; she confided in Kita before the ceremony that she's already pregnant. Not quite three months, so she hadn't told her husband-to-be, but almost.

Kita's so happy her sisters are content with the paths they've chosen in life. She hopes her daughters –and her sons– will also be able to find what makes them happy and pursue it. Benten has already found what makes her happiest –hunting, more broadly stealth, woodcraft and the associated crafts of carving wood, antler and bone– but Toshi and Azami are still exploring. Toshi is utterly enamoured of music, which Azami does enjoy but not to the extent her sister does. There've already been a few upsets involving Azami wanting to do something with her sister and Toshi wanting to play music instead. Kita has only had to mediate twice –on other occasions Madara, Ohabari-oba and others have intervened– but the twins do seem to be gradually settling into separate preferences and career paths.

Azami likes people. Likes talking and listening and has a knack for getting to the bottom of her many friends' disputes. She is often unthinkingly harsh, as children so often are, but Kita is gently working on that and teaching her little girl the soft negotiation and discussion skills that have stood her in good stead through many a fraught meeting with the clan's elders. Azami is not quite twelve yet, but mediation and perspective are skills that will be much in demand as the village continues to become more prosperous. What actual craft Azami will eventually pursue is still in question; she is capable at both weaving and embroidery but is not inspired by either. However she also does not see them as unwelcome chores, which is something; those necessary tasks do not wear her out or exhaust her energy.

Takahara is probably going to be Outguard Head after her husband, but Kita is surreptitiously introducing him to as many other activities as possible so he can find a hobby he likes. Or possibly even a career, should he find something he loves enough to set his heart on it and step down from his implied role as Amaterasu Heir.

Sukumo is four, so not really old enough for anything beyond errands and easy chores; she loves being allowed to help with the gardening and cooking, but that could easily be about getting to do 'adult' things with her aunties rather than a true and fundamental aptitude. Kita had loved her chores just as much at that age.

Mitama's current favourite thing is running around playing ninja with his cousin Nōtori –Hijiri's son– and trying to convince Takahara and his friends to play with them. Her three-year-old idolises his older brother, which Takahara indulges or avoids depending on his current mood in typical six-year-old fashion. Not that Sukumo is any less adoring, but Takahara is more likely to bend for his sister than his brother.

Looking beyond the clan however reveals a lot of cracks, some in the village and a great many more in the wider political landscape. Kita is doing what she can for her husband, but she recognises that right now the best possible thing she can do is stay healthy and cautious throughout her pregnancy, then promptly get back into proper physical shape afterwards. Assassins are looking increasingly likely with the uptick in minor local conflicts that both Uchiha and Senju are now being invited to participate in –never mind Konohagakure's other clans– and her Mangekyō transformation is most effective as an absolute last resort, so she can maintain the element of surprise. Tobirama interestingly hasn't mentioned it to any of his clansmen or family, so it remains an Uchiha secret.

She is keeping up her naginata routines to maintain muscle tone as much as she can and never leaves the clan hall without both battle-wire and seals, but she is seven months pregnant and it definitely shows. Sakurajima is spending a lot of time with her, ostensibly to benefit from her experience as a mother –Sakurajima has no adult relatives to mentor her in parenting– but also as a discreet bodyguard. Her son Kirishima is two and a half months old and sleeping almost constantly –in contrast to Shirakami, who is eight months and determined to shuffle everywhere so as to stick everything in sight into his mouth– so she is perfectly able to split her attention accordingly.

Sakurajima's husband has inveigled himself into the wider clan's financial management, which he is proving shockingly brilliant in. Kita is happy to leave him to it; it took her a while to recognise him from the Naruto story that her life is unlikely to ever resemble in more than the most roundabout of ways, but this Kakuzu is not tattooed as a criminal and has no other hearts in his chest beyond his own. His financial acumen in the story was however notable, so she is glad to have such skill at her clan's disposal.

He's a fun conversationalist, honestly: a very dry sense of humour, very knowledgeable about market forces, an interesting perspective on the shinobi lifestyle generally and very keen to learn more about how politics affect the economy in various ways. Kita suspects Obihiro may end up offering him an official role in the trading branch in a few more years' time.

With the difficulties likely to be facing the clan and the village, she needs to better get to know her fellow clan matrons. If they are going to _truly_ have lasting peace then the Uchiha need to collaborate with their allies and vassals in more than just business; yes, she has regular teas with Mito to discuss sealing and encourage their children to play together, but that's really not enough.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are a lot on new names in this chapter, but there's no requirement to remember all of them. Or any of them; important people will be re-introduced as needed. Certain characters are borrowed from DOS and recursive iterations thereof (Thanks Silver Queen, BoPeep, Pepperdoken and everybody else who contributed to the google doc of OCs and minor characters), so play 'spot the character' if you wish!

Nine years of peace isn't so bad, truly. It's really _good_ , in fact: all the more so when you consider that they still aren't properly at war. It's just that two different Outguard squads and a trading caravan have all been ambushed separately by Earth Country shinobi within the past month, so Madara cannot in good conscience allow this ill-treatment of his clansmen to continue. It may be just inconvenience and assault so far, but he will not allow it to escalate into murder.

He wrote a letter to the Earth Daimyo after the first time, but the reply he received –at the same time as news of the caravan attack– was distinctly lacking in assurances, which was sufficiently suspect that he was already making preparations by the time a second Outguard squad returned from a mission west looking distinctly scuffed from being ambushed on the road. Nobody has died yet, thankfully, but there's no reason to believe that will last. These attacks are just testing the waters.

So Madara is going for a show of force. His clan is being attacked while not under contract, so this is a _personal_ assault and he is within his rights to respond accordingly.

Still, _nine_ years of peace? He'd hoped for longer.

* * *

"But Madara, I _should_ come! We're allies!" Hashirama is _deeply_ offended by the recent attacks on the Uchiha, all the more so because the Senju have _not_ been so assaulted. Tobirama rather doubts his brother is aware of the implications and politics of such a choice, or of what would doubtless result _should_ he accompany Madara on this excursion. Madara knows though, so Tobirama waits silently to see what distraction will be waved in his brother's face to dissuade him from his current path. Hashirama is depressingly easy to distract, so long as things are properly framed to appeal to him.

"Hashirama, this is a personal attack on my clan," Madara replies with a steady patience Tobirama can't help but admire. "If I take you along it makes it look like I can't protect my clan without Senju support, which undermines my authority as Outguard Head. It also makes this conflict a shinobi matter, when I am trying to keep it political and non-violent. As the head of a noble family, I am within my rights to approach the Earth Daimyo _personally_ to inquire as to why he is condoning the assault my kinsmen in territories under his control and he is _not_ allowed to fob me off with platitudes without risking censure from _other_ nobles whose family and dependents travel through his territory, such as his fellow daimyo. If I travel with a civilian-style entourage he is forced to negotiate with me as an equal, _not_ as a mercenary contractor."

Very true; the Earth Daimyo likely _wants_ Madara to come armed and supported as a shinobi warlord, so he can then refuse to see the Uchiha Outguard Head and claim he is being menaced.

"I personally would very much appreciate it if you were to stay in Konohagakure, Hashirama," Madara continues earnestly. "With the ongoing unrest, it's possible others will take my absence as an opportunity to challenge the village, either directly or by assaulting our allies. If you're here to respond quickly to direct threats and co-ordinate with my wife on matters pertaining to the other clans, it will be a weight off my mind." And so the handling of Hashirama is delegated to Kita, who will manage it with no less ease than her husband and considerably more patience; it will be interesting to see what she has his brother do while Madara is absent.

Hashirama's resolve instantly melts in the face of this overt emotional plea. "Of course I will Madara! You're right, it _would_ be best for me to stay here while you're negotiating; we have lots of people depending on us both. I'll take good care of the village while you're away, I promise!" Thereby also affirming the Senju's vassal status; Tobirama can't say he's surprised by the level of cunning involved. Madara's always been cleverer than Hashirama.

"I know you will," Madara agrees with a soft smile that is all the more convincing for being utterly sincere. "I'd also like to borrow Tobirama, if I may; Izuna is not able to accompany me any more than you are and I would be grateful for a second pair of eyes and ears."

"I'd be honoured," Tobirama interrupts before his brother can agree on his behalf. He's used to standing in for his brother in formal situations; this time it will be his choice rather than an unfortunate necessity. It will also be edifying and amusing to get to see in person how Madara plans to resolve the situation.

"Thank you, Tobirama; Kita has already offered to watch over your children, seeing as their mother is currently visiting family." _Officially_ , Chika is in Uzushio catching up with her half-siblings; unofficially she's sneaking around Water Country with the rest of Kamui's squad, trying to discreetly make sense of the chaos that has overtaken the archipelago's shinobi clans. Hashirama doesn't know about that because it's an Uchiha mission and therefore not his business. _Tobirama_ only knows because he was involved in deciding such a mission was necessary, and Chika was the only person in Konoha they could send to act as a native guide to the frankly bizarre melting pot that is Water Country's shinobi culture.

Chika's not been legally his wife for almost a year now, her duties completed following his daughter's naming last summer. She's still a Senju –the marriage contract makes that clear– but she's equally Uchiha thanks to her adoption, and practically speaking she spends far more time with her 'sister' than her maternal family. Kamui's daughter Rakko sees much more of Chika than Tobirama's two children do, but that's to be expected really when it is Kamui that holds Chika's heart and Kamui's house where Chika actually lives.

Tobirama doesn't really mind; he went into his marriage knowing it was a legal fiction and it's honestly a relief to have the deception be over. Chika doesn't really have the temperament for motherhood –she is too much like her own mother for that– and he has no issue with raising Makuma and little Yukino by himself. Well, with his leopards and Kita and Madara's ever-willing support, that is; support he is always willing to offer in return when they need someone else to watch over _their_ children.

Mito helps too, of course –little Tamayama is not quite a month older than Yukino-chan– but Tobirama personally prefers his children to be more secluded from the increasingly busy village when he's not there to watch over them personally. Five of the Uchiha's Lineage Heads _have_ relocated to the village in the past eighteen months, but Madara is still living in the old Uchiha compound and Tobirama much prefers the implied security there. As do his leopards; a den _should_ be hidden away, for the kits' sake. That his two children are much younger than brother's children –save Hashirama's youngest– is also a factor: Tsunama and Madoma are both in shinobi training now and Menka is five. Makuma meanwhile is three and Yukino is only nine months, which works decently well with Kita's two-year-old Shirakami and year-old Adatara.

Benten is twenty now, fully adult and a squad leader in the Outguard with a face –and chakra signature– so very like her brother Hidaka's that Tobirama is forced to distinguish them by hairstyle and scent; not that he will ever admit to the latter to either's face. Never mind that Hidaka is head of the Konohagakure Police Force; all the Uchiha wear their clan coats around the village, just as other clans don their respective colours, so it's impossible to tell at a distance who is Outguard or Homeguard or neither.

There's a movement to issue the police force with its own uniform, but discussions have stalled on what that uniform would _be_ , so Tobirama suspects there will be no consensus any time soon. It is more likely that there will be some kind of additional identifier over their clan clothing, but what that will end up being will take time to determine and arrange.

On the matter of his _own_ clothing however, he's willing to let the Uchiha clan dress him for the impending meeting with the Earth Daimyo. He would rather _not_ look like a poor cousin standing next to Madara is all his finery, even if that means wearing something that marks him as a retainer of the Uchiha clan. He _knows_ Madara; the man will see dressing Tobirama as an opportunity to flaunt the wealth and strength of the village, which means the outfit – _outfits_ most likely– will be well-made, extremely expensive and in full accordance with Senju tastes and traditions. And he will not have to pay for _any_ of them.

Having to deal with civilian politics and politicians for a week or two is a small price to pay, all things considered.

* * *

Her youngest child is eighteen months old now and Kita has made good use of that time –and the latitude offered to mothers of small children wanting to spend time with fellow parents– to better get to know the other clan matriarchs in Konohagakure. And a number of other ladies as well; Aburame Akitsu is the sister of the next Aburame Head rather than his wife, but she was the first person Kita made a point of reaching out to. They were friends already, although they hadn't seen each-other since that one meeting at court, so inviting her friend to visit the village was perfectly acceptable. Especially since Akitsu-chan is married now with two sons, Kera and Pata.

Akitsu's brother Aburame Shīka also has a son, an adorably earnest four-year-old called Shihen. It isn't so surprising really that the Aburame main line begin all their male names with the same character –the poem kanji– when they are as old a noble family as the Uchiha. Technically older actually, if significantly lower-ranking.

Then there is Akimichi Chōkō's wife Keiko, Yamanaka Inosuke's wife Inokiku and Nara Shikari's wife Mikasa –a half-Yamanaka– along with Mito, whom she is already well-known to. The Akimichi Alliance's heirs and their spouses are all younger than her, with their firstborns all between Mitama and Shirakami in age, so her excuse of introducing her younger children to their peers while they are young enough to be free of prejudices works very well indeed.

The Akimichi Alliance then introduce her to Sarutobi Koto, wife of Sarutobi Nisuke the Sarutobi Clan Head, as well as Sarutobi Isamu, wife of Nisuke's younger brother –who is also their clan's best warrior– Sarutobi Sasuke. Koto-san's oldest son Kagetaka is five years older than Toshi and Azami, her youngest Hōzan is Takahara's age and there are three other children in between; with her Kita mostly talks about the challenges of parenting teens and pre-teens. Sarutobi Isamu is younger, as are her children: Hiruzen is eight, his sisters Etsu and Katsu are five and three respectively and his little brother Ushiro is not quite a year old.

Isamu-san is much quieter than her sister-in-law, no doubt acutely conscious of the disparity in rank between herself and Kita, but she does gradually open up on the subject of children. Hiruzen-kun is making friends in Takahara's age-group, Etsu finds a delighted fellow mischief-maker in Mitama –they both climb trees with as much fearless alacrity as Kita did aged five– and Katsu manages reasonably well at getting along with Shirakami, who age two is already showing off his grandfather's imperiously demanding attitude, tempered only by a surprisingly determined compassion that the entire Uchiha clan finds disarmingly adorable.

If Takahara doesn't make a strong play for succeeding Madara, it may well end up being Shirakami as next Outguard Head; he's only a toddler but he has drive in spades, far more than easy-going Takahara has ever shown. Her oldest loves pleasing his father, adores his younger siblings and has an excellent mind, but he's not _passionate_ about success like Shirakami already is, which rather shows; Takahara was not this determinedly and precociously verbal. Not that Madara loves Takahara any less for that; on the contrary, her husband is delighted to have such a gentle son with whom to discuss clan history with, even if it means dedicating less time to his firstborn's martial education.

Getting to know the Kurama proved rather more challenging –she ended up having to go through Tōka's mother, Senju Sumi née Kurama– and revealed that said clan does _not_ confer much power at all on those women who are neither battle-trained nor in the main line of inheritance, which seems terribly short-sighted to Kita. It might however explain why the Kurama have never managed to become truly prominent before now, so she lets it be. Kurama Tomi's distinct reluctance to allow her two children to run around and play with anyone not of her clan is unfortunate, but the point of the village is to provide a choice. If the Kurama choose not to take advantage of the opportunity to build cross-clan camaraderie, that is their own problem.

Sarutobi Isamu introduces her to Shimura Takemi, a civilian from a merchant family who set her sights on four-years-younger Shimura Dōjun to get out of an arranged marriage to a man she disliked. Takemi-san has a keen head for currency and strategy, although she is perhaps a little _too_ mercenary at times; her husband, a calm and sympathetic man, tempers her very well. Dōjun-san is _not_ the Shimura Clan Head –that is his cousin Kōsa– but his wife effectively occupies the position of matriarch through sheer skill and efficiency, seeing as the actual wife of the Shimura Clan Head is a warm, cheerful women with no head for politics or money at all. Shimura Suke does invite Kita to call on her twice, but it's very clear within the first ten minutes of the first meeting that Suke-san is not the sharpest knife in the kitchen. She's a delightful hostess and clearly an excellent mother to her seven children, but her best and smartest political decision to date has likely been to leave all of said politics to Takemi-san.

Kita finds herself growing almost reluctantly fond of Shimura Takemi, no matter how much she has to stay on her toes around the other women. She's not been challenged like this since Tajima died and she finds she has actually missed it; well, kind of. Now she is in control and can _choose_ when to interact with her designated opponent, it's almost fun to play the game and verbally fence with someone who is determined to defeat her _personally_ rather than just as a proxy for her husband or her clan.

Takemi-san has three children, two sons and a younger daughter: Hanzō is eleven, Danzō is eight and Shinomi is three. She doesn't really seem to spare much time for her oldest son –unlike her husband, who is training both boys in clan-specific studies parallel to their centralised lessons under Senju and Uchiha teachers– but Danzō seems to enjoy spending his free time sitting quietly on the engawa and listening to his mother talk to her guests through the open shōji, entertaining his little sister with her toys so she doesn't fuss.

Kita cannot forget the presence of the little eavesdroppers; her chakra-sensing prevents it. However she strongly suspects that Takemi-san _does_ forget her younger children are listening, going by some of the things Kita has heard her say. Which are not things that _Kita_ would say within earshot of her twelve-year-old twins, much less Takahara or the younger ones. Benten yes –Benten is an adult now and better understands the nuances of duty and the cultural subtleties in play– but not the others.

It is however not for her to judge how another woman chooses to raise her children. She is trying to strengthen the bonds between the various clans resident in Konoha, and she is making good progress. That is what really matters, especially now that the unrest abroad has turned into outright attacks on Uchiha shinobi.

Konohagakure will have to stand as one if they are going to get through this, and forging bonds with certain clans is trickier than others.

* * *

"So how's it going with the Hatake?"

Kita smiles; her rueful feelings clearly carry across though, because Inuzuka Mitsu, matriarch and grandmother with a necklace of tiger teeth –and scars on her arms to match– cackles at her.

"That badly, huh? And you with an in already! Or is Tobirama-bō not earning his keep?"

"Tobirama left for Earth with my husband yesterday, Mitsu-san," Kita says, absently kissing the top of Yukino's head as the infant shifts restlessly in her sleep. Tobirama's daughter is not quite nine months old, but she already has a cap of soft white hair covering her scalp. It doesn't stick up like Makuma's hair does but it _does_ have a bit of a curl to it, so as she grows older it will probably become significantly more unmanageable. Going by the hairstyles of those Hatake she _has_ met, Kita can tell it's unlikely that Yukino growing out her hair will make it easier to tame.

"And he didn't think to introduce you to his relatives first? When it's you he leaves his kids with rather than his brother?" Mitsu snorts. "And I already told you to just call me Mitsu, Uchiha-chan; no need for a fancy-pants noblewoman like yourself to stand on ceremony with a butcher's daughter."

"I have nothing but respect for a woman able to keep so many rough-and-tumble shinobi and ninken in good order," Kita replies mildly, but does make a mental note to drop the honorific in future. "And Tobirama _did_ introduce me to those of the Hatake whom he is closely related to, such as his aunts and close cousins." The issue is that the Hatake clan has lineages much as the Uchiha do, but those lineages are rather less closely related and operate independently of one-another, the entire clan only meeting up once a year in the late spring after planting season. The lineages are in fact so distinct as to have markedly different phenotypes –not that she has any idea how to articulate that in Japanese– despite the entire clan sharing dark grey eyes, pale and somewhat gravity-defying hair ranging in shade from grey and silver through stark white into platinum blond, and relatively lean builds for their height.

Specifically, Tobirama introduced her to his aunts Barano and Hiruno, joint matriarchs of the Hatake's leopard lineage, with a mention of an uncle named Yōbai who is dead and Hiruno's husband Tensai, who is alive but not currently present in the village. He also introduced her to Barano's daughter Imono and her children –aged six and two years' old– and Hiruno's son Ryokubu, who has a newborn called Nashi. Kita's not quite sure whether or not Imono is married or who Nashi's mother is or was –the little boy is barely six months old and definitely isn't weaned– but she assumes their not being mentioned is some kind of Hatake thing so isn't asking.

Kita has had tea with both Tobirama's aunts and Imono –together and separately– since they arrived in the village in the early winter and Imono has since introduced her to Hatake Biwano, whose husband's mother is the matriarch of the lynx lineage. She is yet to actually _meet_ Hatake Awano-san, but the conversation with Biwano was very interesting and Biwano's son Hōri is a bit older than Sukumo, which could have been a disaster –Sukumo is _intensely_ opinionated these days concerning what counts as interesting and worth her time– but actually went surprisingly well.

However that is only two lineages; the Hatake have seven, one for each of the summons contracts they hold. Those lineages can then be grouped by general phenotype into three subsets: the fairest-skinned Hatake with facial bones very like the Senju –more typical of eastern Fire and the archipelagos between Fire and Water– hold the dog and wolf contracts; the more golden-skinned Hatake with rounder faces and subtler features like the natives of Frost and distant Snow hold the lynx, tiger and snow leopard contracts –Tobirama is markedly paler than his cousins and has a much longer nose– and the dark-skinned Hatake who are all-around taller hold the boar and bear contracts.

The clan is not particularly large –numbers apparently range between fifteen and twenty-five per lineage, with an overall age range from newborn to early sixties– and only about a third of them are in Konohagakure at all; that said third is all respected elders and parents with young children says quite a lot really. Kita knows the Hatake opened negotiations with the Uchiha following pressure from the shinobi village currently forming in Lightning, but she doesn't know exactly what kind of pressure it was. Clearly it was fairly serious for the entire clan to have moved their more vulnerable members to western Fire when their traditional territories are in north-eastern Fire, spreading up through Hot Water and Frost into the southern half of Lightning. To abandon their home range almost entirely they must have felt threatened, although it's likely most of the clan's warriors are still patrolling there and taking missions.

Kita is aware that her husband probably knows exactly what is going on, but he hasn't volunteered the information so she isn't going to ask. It's really not her business unless either he or the Hatake choose to tell her about it.

"Well the only Hatake _I_ have met properly is Raino-chan, who introduced herself because she's got a contract with the Dog Summons and they wanted to chat to my Shiramaru," Mitsu says, "and her three-year-old son wanted to play with my great-nephews. Really though, what kind of mother names her son 'turnip'?"

"I think it's traditional for Hatake to name their children after produce," Kita says diplomatically. Imono –written 'taro field'– introduced her son as Genmai –'brown rice'– and her toddler daughter as Mugino, which means 'bean field.' Then there is Nashi –'pear'– and his father Ryokubu, whose name is written as 'weeds.'

So not _all_ produce, but there's very definitely a farming theme to go with their clan name, which is written as 'field'. Specifically a dry farming field like the Uchiha grow millet, buckwheat and vegetables in, to distinguish it from a wet paddy field such as the Senju vassals grow rice in.

Not that Inuzuka Mitsu really has room to talk where names are concerned: her name is 'paw' and she named her daughter Nomi –written 'ear'– and her son Nodo –'throat.'

* * *

By week two of their stay in the Earth Daimyo's court Tobirama is caught between bubbling fury at the sheer self-serving _cowardice_ of the Earth Daimyo and mildly concerned awe at how _magnificently_ in control of both himself and the situation Madara is. The way the Outguard Head _smiles_ at every meeting with the daimyo, advisors and other nobles, his pleasant patience in the face of their host's dithering and the subtle way the entire court is slowly bending around him, gently nudged with sincere respect and cunning words. The daimyo doesn't seem to have noticed yet that he is increasingly alone in a crocodile pit of his own making, but whether he does or not, Tobirama would put money on Earth Country having a new daimyo before the end of the year. Possibly by the end of the summer…

The daimyo's wife _has_ noticed. However very tellingly she seems disinclined to trust her husband's ability to keep her alive and is instead colluding with her brother, who has thrown himself behind the daimyo's cousin. Tobirama isn't sure _what_ got said when Benten was invited to take tea privately with Yutaka-sama, but clearly the young woman has learned well from Kita how to dissolve anger and turn an argument in a direction of her choosing without ever revealing her full hand.

By week three the daimyo has been talked into a corner and somehow been convinced he is sufficiently in control to be able to afford the generosity of summoning to court the head shinobi of the 'village' founded on his land –making it clear that Iwagakure is a _military_ investment and nothing at all to do with trade or 'security' to protect the population from bandits– to make a public apology to Madara for the 'misunderstanding' and witness the signing of a formal treaty between Earth and the Uchiha with favourable trade terms. Tobirama does not expect for a moment that the treaty will last –and knows very well that Madara doesn't either– because those terms are so _very_ favourable that whoever replaces this daimyo will declare the document void as soon as they have consolidated their position, out of paranoia if nothing else.

It's somewhat terrifying that Madara has perfectly set up a coup in a foreign country's court without even once using his sharingan, or indeed any chakra at all beyond the basics for ensuring privacy and security in the guest quarters. That it took him little more than two _weeks_ is just a bonus; Tobirama is _desperate_ to go home just so he can spend a few days gushing and arguing the specifics and implications of certain of Madara's choices, because he _knows_ he's missing some of the courtly subtleties of the other man's moves and wants the details. Many more details than they have time to discuss here, in what little time they have in the evenings behind the security seals. Sleep and other forms of rest are very important for maintaining one's edge, after all.

The most delightfully horrifying part is that on their _first evening_ in the guest quarters, after they had thoroughly secured themselves from eavesdroppers and intruders, Madara threw himself down on a zabuton and said, "The man's a disgrace; his people deserve better" and then promptly set about making it _happen_. Making the Earth Court think it was _their idea_ , even.

Tobirama is _so_ glad of Madara's inability to truly wish Hashirama harm and that their clans are allies now. Otherwise the Senju probably wouldn't _exist_ anymore.

He can see Kita's thoughts and methods in Madara's words and choices as well and it makes the overall shape of the future emerging all the more nerve-rackingly intoxicating. He can _see_ the trap forming, _see_ how mild words and gentle observations are leading Madara's audience to reach conclusions and decisions they believe are their own and it fills him with no less triumph than his own previous military successes have. More even, because they are _winning_ without ever shedding a single drop of Uchiha or Senju blood.

Tobirama is fully complicit in this eventual outcome, offering his observations and awareness of the feelings and movements of the court whenever they are in private for Madara to take into account, making suggestions and picking at flaws, but he is not ashamed to say that the final product will be more Madara's work than his own. Only Madara could possibly be ambitious enough to decide to overthrow a _daimyo_ for being _petty and ineffectual_ and then make the man's own court do all the work _for_ him.

He's so glad he's here to see this unfold. He'd never have been able to fully appreciate the beauty of the set-up otherwise.

* * *

The shinobi who answers the daimyo's summons is familiar to Tobirama, in that he's heard of the man on numerous occasions but never actually faced him across a battlefield. He's not sure if 'Ishikawa' is a personal name, a family name or an epithet, but the warrior is of Butsuma's generation and well-known for being both a shrewd leader and somehow managing to use Earth Element chakra to fly with. Tobirama would very much have liked to meet the man as an ally in order to discuss ninjutsu theory with him, but he can recognise the unlikeliness of the possibility.

It could have been interesting though.

With Ishikawa is another infamous shinobi: Mū of the Dust Release. It's rather unnerving, to look at a man and feel no chakra presence at all. Knowing what he does now about stealth and Kita's seals, Tobirama suspects there's a Sage aspect to Mū's ability. Not that having an idea of how the technique works enables him to bypass it, of course; he still can't feel the man's chakra.

There's a short teenager lurking behind both men, wearing rudimentary armour under a cheap formal kimono –the sort he can now tell at a distance has been all-to-recently purchased from a shop, as opposed to Ishikawa's more faded and far better-fitting finery– and giving off a strong sense of uncomfortable awe. His chakra's similar enough to Ishikawa to be a relative; a grandson perhaps? Tobirama keeps his eyes lowered and his senses sharp; he doesn't need to look at these men to know what they're thinking, although not looking at the Mujin is more him trusting Madara than truly being able to read the bandage-swathed shinobi's utter lack of chakra. The formal kimono over the bandages is clearly inherited –it is a much older style and does not hang quite right on the man's frame– but well-kept and of very good quality.

Tobirama wonders what this whole scene looks like to these men. Here is the daimyo in his robes surrounded by his silently hostile court, their intentions clear to anybody capable of reading chakra, here is Uchiha Madara in exquisitely fine silk hitatare in darkest royal purple, embroidered with many-hued fireballs and phoenixes, unruly hair pulled back in a high topknot with only the jagged bangs framing his face hinting at his usual appearance, a steel-cored fan held loosely in one hand and a smile that Tobirama knows without even looking will be slightly too sharp and knowing for any shinobi's comfort.

He can sense Ishikawa calculating, feel the man thinking furiously even as the grey-haired shinobi bows courteously and voices the usual polite nothings to satisfy the daimyo. Tobirama knows what he looks like, dressed in hakama and haori of the finest silk with incredibly thin vertical stripes woven into the weave –almost an optical illusion in how the material swims before the eyes– over a kimono of plain Aburame tensan, almost insultingly fine in its simplicity and how little of it is visible when by itself such a garment costs more than many landed samurai earn in a year. His haori lining is ridiculously elaborate in comparison, expensive cyan-dyed silk richly embroidered with snow leopards chasing fish along a mountain stream, glittering water droplets chased in silver against a cloudy backdrop, the hidden opulence barely hinted at through his sleeve openings. The lining, Tobirama feels, is evidence that Madara has been planning to dress him for an occasion such as this for quite some time; not that any of the other garments are less expensive or elaborate, but personalised embroidery takes hours upon hours of work –as he knows from watching Kita– and the haori is not the only outfit that has been meticulously decorated by hand.

Tobirama knows his clothing bears stitched seals in every seam, more seals concealed in the embroidered lining –Madara demonstrated before they even left Konohagakure that his clothing is knife-proof to all but a powerful chakra adept and fireproof as well– and that the external softness and vulnerability the outfit implies is just another kind of armour. He knows that Ishikawa is looking at him, seeing the extravagance of his clothing and how he bows his head meekly behind Madara and is reaching conclusions of his own.

A decade ago he was a sworn enemy of the Uchiha, his entire life shaped by a centuries' long feud. But now here he is, wearing clothing finer than he could ever have afforded then even if he had saved for a decade, a trusted vassal and valued retainer of his former nemesis.

Madara's chakra ripples slightly, the familiar promise of deadly heat barely leashed that is so often accompanied by his most terrifyingly deranged smiles. "I know of course that Iwagakure serves Tamura-dono in all things," he says smoothly, effortlessly insulting the daimyo with the implied awareness that the man is personally responsible for the Uchiha's recent inconvenience despite repeated assurances otherwise, and diminishing Ishikawa's achievement in bringing so many mule-headed mountain shinobi together under his authority in the same breath, "so I have every faith that there will be no further misunderstandings between us."

The implication that the Uchiha Outguard Head would _gladly_ burn Ishikawa and his entire village to ash and gravel if given a suitable excuse comes across loud and clear; behind the two adults, the teenager flinches.

"Madara-sama may rest assured that his intentions and hopes are fully understood," Ishikawa replies steadily, "and that Iwagakure has no desire at all to make an enemy of such an accomplished and generous individual."

"Then we shall have peace," Madara says warmly, steel underpinning every word, "for the betterment of our respective peoples. Tamura-dono requests your presence for the signing of a historic treaty between us, as a witness to what can be achieved in peace."

Tobirama has heard it said that Kita smiles like a tiger and he has in fact seen the expression for himself on occasion, but it is Madara who smiles like an open grave, wide and hungry with a faint edge of teeth to swallow up any who dare to venture too close. He can't see the man's face, just the back of his head, but by the way the teenager's chakra cringes violently he knows _exactly_ what is on Madara's face at this moment.

That effortlessly confident, almost serene smile that Tobirama has never _once_ seen directed at Hashirama, but that was turned his way on multiple occasions before the treaty signing. The smile that was doubtless the last thing many of his kinsmen ever saw. The smile that says, "Come and die."

Tobirama knows there's no shame at all in retreating from this particular expression; suicidal he is not and has never been. Ishikawa cannot retreat physically in this moment, but his polite bending to the formal trappings of the occasion is in itself a kind of surrender. Madara has undoubtedly triumphed on this particular battlefield; whether he has won the overall war remains yet to be seen.

It will depend greatly on how the now-inevitable coup falls out and what course the next Earth Daimyo chooses to take in leading his country.

* * *

Madara knows even as he leaves Earth with Tobirama and the two squads specially put together for their skills in diplomacy, interrogation and espionage that he is never, ever going to be welcomed back. Not after this, no matter who ends up on top when the dust settles after the coup he's coaxed into motion; nobody at the Earth Daimyo's court, who watched him smile and charm while utterly demolishing with nothing more than words the scion of a family that has ruled them for twelve generations, is going to want him to set a single _foot_ inside their border ever again, and they will no doubt warn their children too.

That's fine by him; he can make it work. At the very least Earth is unlikely to be troubling the Uchiha any time soon and this decisive victory will give everybody else pause. Possibly for as long as a year, which will be time enough to arrange for Konohagakure's various other shinobi clans to participate in joint training with the Outguard, so they can all learn to work side-by-side with minimal difficulties. He has put off war for a little while, but sooner or later somebody is going to get greedy and over-ambitious. That's just life.

Tobirama is an excellent ally; his sensing skills provide Madara with additional context he'd never be able to acquire by himself, and the younger Senju's way of nit-picking at his plans enables him to fill in the weak spots before enacting them. He'll ask Tobirama to help with the joint training sessions too; he's sure the other man will have some good ideas.

It'll also irritate Izuna, which is always fun.

* * *

Despite having missed the first fortnight of the new school year due to being in Earth, Tobirama is still responsible for the one of the new classes of eight-year-olds at the shinobi academy. Hijiri has very kindly been filling in for him, but now he is home he will have to get to know the students whose education he will be overseeing for the next six years. He won't be teaching all their classes –not even half of them in fact– but he is the person expected to mentor these fifteen children through their shinobi education, encourage them to do well, make sure they are playing their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses, ensure they do not come to harm and be confident in their survival to adulthood when he lets them go at fourteen.

Hijiri has implanted his students' faces and names in his mind, but has refrained from adding any details of behaviour or temperament on the basis that doing so also confers bias; Tobirama is grateful for both the details provided and the implied confidence that he will manage just fine at raising three squads-worth of children into capable shinobi without outside interference. At least he's not expected to do all the work himself; he'd not have the time to raise his own children if that were the case.

Still, there's a lot that can be done in three hours a day, and once they've properly grasped the basics he will see less of them, entrusting their education to a range of specialists and checking in regularly to make sure they are absorbing the material. By the time they are ten he will only see them for one hour a day –in shinobi classes at least; he's still teaching advanced kanji and calligraphy at the schoolhouse– and once they are thirteen they will only get one hour every other day, but as exposure time shrinks it will also become more exclusive. His own hours will remain the same; he will simply see fewer children during them, to better focus on their individual needs as they grow into strong shinobi.

Tobirama doubts very much that all his students will choose to pursue fieldwork; he's likely to lose a handful to apprenticeships in shinobi-related professions before they're all fourteen, and of those who graduate only those from the smaller clans are likely to immediately start taking missions with mentors. The Uchiha will have an extra two years of training under Madara if they want to join the Outguard –or under Hidaka for the police force– and he is well aware that most of the children he will be teaching are signing up for this because it's what their parents want and they don't know what else to do with themselves. Demonstrating that there are honourable and meaningful alternatives to a warrior career is his job as their teacher.

He knows war is coming, but none of his students will see it. They're too young and Madara's rule that nobody younger than fourteen is allowed to take missions in Konohagakure is absolutely non-negotiable. The Uchiha Outguard head wanted it to be sixteen but the smaller clans objected, so _currently_ the standard is set at fourteen –and will doubtless be revisited later– but as a compromise nobody younger than eighteen is allowed to take missions without a mentor who is a civilian-legal adult.

Tobirama hopes that by the time his class graduates, sixteen will be the new baseline age-limit. Given that Madara is likely already planning joint training so that all the shinobi based in the village can meet the very high Outguard standards, that's likelier than most might believe.

Arriving in his new classroom –which is an Uchiha-style raised roof over a clay floor, no walls at all– Tobirama checks the leash seal Kita provided him with to keep Yukino from crawling away into the bushes –incredibly practical and the kind of thing only a parent could think of– sets his daughter on the ground and upends a small bag of wooden toys beside her. She'll no doubt be constantly underfoot, but the challenge of keeping an eye on their surroundings as much as their footwork will be good for his students.

As the bell over the schoolhouse peals to signal the beginning of the afternoon session, Tobirama's students arrive in little packs. Matching faces to names is easy when Hijiri has done the work for him and some of them he knows already: Uchiha Kagami, Tokimi, Omusha, Otofuke and Hatsu for instance, as well as Senju Sesshama. Madoma and Takahara are in a different class –favouritism and the importance of avoiding it was mentioned– as is Tateshina's firstborn Neishi, Kamui's Rakko and a good number of others. This is after all the treaty generation for both Uchiha and Senju.

Despite full-time shinobi skills classes having been opened to children from outside the Uchiha and Senju clans for a while now, this year is the first time _all_ the other Konohagakure clans have decided to allow their children in, so Tobirama's class also features Akimichi Torifu, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzō, Mitokado Homura, Inuzuka Hara and Kegawa, Nara Shizue, Shiranui Nao and Utatane Koharu. He's pleased to see that almost half his class are girls; women always bring a different perspective, and familiarity with multiple perspectives is necessary to thrive as a shinobi.

"You're the sensei Tō-san was standing in for, Bira-oji?" Hatsu asks excitedly, bouncing lightly on her toes right at the front of the training barn while most of the rest of the class hang back to stare. He's not sure why; it's not like he wears his armour in the village and Yukino is currently hiding her face in the back of his knees.

"It's Bira- _sensei_ , Hatsu-chan," Otofuke says firmly, "like in my neesan's calligraphy classes."

Tobirama claps his hands twice, calling everybody's attention to him; they promptly form up in three rows of five, which Hijiri evidently taught them was expected. He'll thank the man later, although he may need to rearrange his students so it's not just Uchiha at the front.

"Greetings, class. I am Senju Tobirama and I will be your primary sensei until you either leave this class or graduate. This means that I will assign your elective classes and review your marks in them, and if you wish to attend other electives you must ask me to arrange them for you." He pauses. "In order to stay in this class you much also keep up with your reading, mathematics, geography and history classes in the schoolhouse, so if you are struggling please come to me so I can arrange tutors." The children in the advanced classes need to be trained to offer help to the less accomplished ones, to build camaraderie and develop good habits for when they are in the field.

"Yes sensei," his students chorus, ducking into variously low bows depending on which clan they are from and how nervous they are.

"You may call me Tobirama-sensei," Tobirama informs them calmly, "or Bira-sensei, if that is easier." He knows that the Uchiha children will default to 'Bira-sensei'; they have all called him 'Bira-oji' from the moment they learned to talk. "Any questions?"

The boy wearing glasses in the middle row –Mitokado Homura; he will have to learn to compensate for the liability of those lenses– raises a hand. "Sensei, why is there a baby?" Yukino has recovered her poise and is now sitting on Tokimi's foot and giggling; the older girl is trying to surreptitiously wave a length of ribbon to keep the infant amused without taking her eyes off Tobirama.

"This is my daughter Yukino-chan," Tobirama replies blandly. "She will be helping you with your awareness; a shinobi cannot afford to lose track of their surroundings while focusing on their duties. Anyone else?"

Nobody else speaks up, so Tobirama starts the lesson. "Hijiri-san has taught you the safe handling of shuriken and knives, so today I will teach you to handle kunai and senbon." Not how to throw them –there are separate classes for that– but how to hold them appropriately and how to pick them up off a flat surface or draw them from a pouch. "I will also test you on shuriken and knives." If they all behave themselves he may even be able to get started on identifying and handling explosives. Training children is not particularly hard; a person simply needs to be patient, clear and consistent, both with the instructions and with the praise. "Then after you have proved to me you are capable of diligent obedience and attentive focus I will teach each of you a new chakra exercise."

Every single pair of eyes is instantly focused on him, even the Nara's. Excellent.

* * *

The Uzumaki are removing the curse they laid on Sora-ku. Kita knows it's sealing, but she still thinks of it as a curse; what _is_ a curse but words made real and factual? Seals are words, so they can be used to curse as well as bless, and the Uzumaki of several hundred years ago cursed Sora-ku at the Senju's behest. Now they are removing it, peeling it back layer by careful layer, and Kita could break it herself but she doesn't see any reason to let her honoured guests know that. The sealing meetings with the Uzumaki have been highly productive, as they have taught her words and additional structure for many concepts and scientific principles that she only vaguely understood from her memories of Before, but she isn't going to share all her secrets any more than the Uzumaki are. She certainly isn't going to point out what she knows are errors, either. Not when they tried to imply _she_ was the one who was mistaken.

Her students are having fun, although she could do with fewer explosions. She's already has to repurpose a more remote barn for them to train in, so no bystanders get hurt and they don't frighten the livestock as much.

The reason the Uzumaki are doing the Uchiha such a large favour at no cost is that the majority of the Hatake clan are uncomfortable with the idea of having a mission office _in_ Konohagakure despite many of their clansmen now living there for at least part of the year, so Madara suggested Soka-ku as a compromise. It's a known Uchiha holding and not all that far from the border with Hot Water, but also sparsely inhabited and technically under the aegis of the Cat Clan rather than Madara personally. However Sora-ku has had no groundwater for centuries due to Uzumaki seals and nothing grows there, so Mito has arranged for those seals to be removed. For the Hatake clan's sake, who are technically the Senju's allies rather than the Uchiha's, for all that the Hatake do not seem particularly keen to renew ties with anybody except Tobirama.

Perhaps that's why Mito made the offer; gratitude and a sense of debt can go a way to prompting the Hatake to spend more time with the Senju and form fresh bonds. However Kita doesn't get the impression that the Hatake care enough about manners to stop shunning the Senju just because one woman got her relatives to make the place their new mission office is being built less inhospitable, especially when the reason that place _is_ so inhospitable is her family's fault in the first place. After all, the Senju and Uzumaki have been allies to the Uchiha for most of a decade now, so they really _should_ have offered to do this sooner.

As it is, Kita is present in Sora-ku when the Uzumaki announce that the seals have been fully removed and a young tree is planted in a dew-drenched empty marketplace as proof and promise, so she hears the quiet scoff of the Hatake to her right –Gin of the bear summoning branch– when Mito calls it a 'symbol of goodwill between our clans.' It's a very quiet scoff though, barely more than a huff, so Mito probably missed it; there's nothing on Hatake Gin's face to indicate he is giving the occasion any less that his full and respectful attention.

Hatake Kanran thanks Mito in a cheery drawl, but the other Hatake present –there is one warrior from each lineage– watch silently with lidded eyes and loose postures that only look casual to civilians who don't know any better.

Then again, six tall men and women with variously wild hair in shades of pale grey, ivory and bleached gold, all leanly muscled and wearing off-white haori with red mountain patterns on the sleeve cuffs, the cloth covering green lacquered armour and the same slightly stretchy black under-armour the Senju favour, does make a rather intimidating picture even when most of them are slouching slightly with their hands resting lightly on their belts. A range of summons are also present: again, one from each of the Hatake's summons' clans as well as about a dozen cats. Kita suspects that there has been some diplomatic posturing on the summons' side of things as well, but going by the relaxed postures of the animals present it's all been fully resolved with no hard feelings on any side.

The Uchiha have rarely come into conflict with the Hatake –different home ranges and vastly different mission preferences– so maybe it's not so surprising that their respective summons were able to negotiate and come to terms so easily. Kita still hasn't met all the Hatake Lineages' matriarchs, but those Hatake she _has_ met seem to be overall rather more inclined towards caution and shrewd observation rather than swift action, so that's not really so surprising.

She's not offended; caution serves a shinobi better than foolhardy haste ever will. She means the Hatake no ill-will and she can wait. War is not upon them yet.

* * *

Kamui's Squad returns from Water Country in the middle of November, well after typhoon season had blown itself out but before the winter storms have really set in. The five warriors all pile into the Clan Hall's main room, unloading reams of notes from their umbrella bags and piling them up all around the walls. Madara pours tea and waits patiently for them to settle; they've been away almost the entire year, having left in March and been entirely out of contact the entire time. Madara could have ordered Hijiri to send regular crows after Kamui, but that would have risked the squad's cover unnecessarily. Water Country is a dangerous place, all volcanic islands with occasional earthquakes and strong, unpredictable currents in the seas around them, and that's without considering either the wildlife or the local shinobi.

Eventually all the notes and scrolls have been produced and Chika lays out a patchwork map over the tatami, six different wide scrolls and another eight sheets of paper which when assembled out together reveal a detailed diagram of topography, water currents and settlements both civilian and not as well as all manner of other symbols.

"Right, so," the redhead says firmly. "This is Mizu no Kuni. The great island the daimyo lives on along with most of his nobles, the twelve Courtiers," she gestures, the circular movement encompassing the dozen smaller islands clustered around the large central one, "the Protector" –the larger south-easterly island that runs roughly parallel to the south-western peninsula of Fire that leads to Tea Country– "and the Heralds, which are disputed: they say they're independent and Water say otherwise." Meaning the two islands north and west of the rest of Water, closer to Hot Water and Lightning. "Every forty years or so some noble or clan tries to take over the Heralds and every time the locals hire Uzumaki to help them fight off the assault. The last time was when I was a child, so it's not due to come around again for about another decade."

Madara knows the smaller of what Chika called 'the heralds' as Benisu Island; presumably that's what the locals call it. It has a coral reef connecting it to the larger island that is so near the surface that it's impossible to sail a boat through the gap; the water is so shallow in fact that it's a bad idea to run directly over the surface as well, due to the likelihood of sudden waves throwing a person onto razor-sharp rocks.

It's a very good map: large scale and detailed with more than just topographical features. Anything would have been better than the rather rudimentary and piecemeal maps that were all the Uchiha had possessed previously –maps Kamui's Squad had been sent off with copies of as starting points– but this is excellent. Also rather concerningly different; entire islands have vanished entirely and others have appeared or moved. Considering the vast majority of Water's islands are volcanic, that implies the geology is rather more active than they'd previously considered possible. This map may well be out of date in a generation's time, which is a disconcerting thought.

"What's this?" Madara asks, tapping the 'do not approach' symbol scrawled in a dotted circle between the large southern island and the outer edge of the smaller attendant islands. There are dozens of even smaller islands scattered about and numerous reefs, but it's the major named islands that are significant in political matters; those islands have enough population, resources and industry to wield political influence at court.

"That's where the Sanbi is," Kamui says shortly. "We saw it; shipping sticks close to the coastline there to avoid it, but every now and then somebody loses a boat." And, goes unsaid but not unrecognised, their lives.

Madara nods; bijuu are an unfortunate but unassailable hazard. The Gobi wanders around Fire Country's forests and he did see it from a distance once, but the dolphin-horse is very shy and scrupulously avoids human contact. Other bijuu are less retiring: the Nibi wanders around Lightning with little care of human settlements and farmland, the Ichibi is Wind Country's only actively malicious desert feature –if also possible to avoid provided there is a moderately talented sensor in your squad– the Nanabi is wide-ranging and startlingly stealthy for a giant flying beetle, the Hachibi is frequently seen sunning itself off the coast of Tea, the Yonbi has claimed a volcanic caldera in Stone Country that everybody with a brain avoids entirely and the Rokubi is at large somewhere in Earth Country, its acidic slime constantly eroding new canyons and caves both above and below ground. The Kyūbi hasn't been sighted in well over two centuries, but the Uchiha last saw it in the bone forests of the peninsula north and slightly west of Rice Paddy Country, so it's probably still up there in the wastes.

Hopefully it's asleep.

"The nobles call the islands what I just did," Chika goes on, "but the locals have their own names for them. A range of different names, even, depending on the caste of the speaker and their clan or island of origin. For instance, most of the mid-caste locals call the central island 'Mist Country' because all the hot springs make the low-lying central region very warm and foggy."

Madara studies the map more closely; all of that island's mountains are around the coast, a ragged ring of blunt but narrow peaks enclosing a large plain dotted with lakes, a single river snaking out through a narrow rift to the west. "Is that _entire island_ one big volcanic caldera?"

"Yes," Chika says bluntly. "Hence all the hot springs and why the entire plain is so incredibly fertile; most of Water Country's fruit crop comes from there, as does the rice. The attendant islands are all small and mountainous, if still very fertile, so dry-field farming is more common because water is scarcer. They're also more exposed, so crops need to be hardier or at least salt-resistant. The Protector is the only other island large enough and low-lying enough for proper paddy farming. Unfortunately for everyone it's also where the Kaguya Clan live, so they're strong and rather prominent despite not being a proper native clan."

"That means a lot to the locals, I take it." Madara knows the Kaguya are originally from Fire Country and that they claim royal descent, but he's never seen any records to prove it despite their affectation of shaving their eyebrows and parting their hair in a zigzag pattern like the long-dead Imperial family. The entire clan is also completely insane, which unfortunately _does_ support the theory of their being of at least noble descent; only a prideful Imperial remnant would choose inbred madness over thinning their line with 'lesser' blood. Yes, the Uchiha as a bloodline are all inter-related to some degree, but they make a point of bringing in new blood in every generation, have rules about who is and is not allowed to marry in terms of cousins, and keep track of how frequently lines have intermarried in the past. Inbreeding has unfortunate effects on reasoning ability.

"Oh yes." Chika grins tiredly. "That's part of why the islands are all up in arms right now: the Kaguya are trying to expand. Well, they've successfully expanded a bit –out to these islands here, see?– but to get any further they have to either go right around the Sanbi, through these reefs and come up in Hōzuki territory, or else go through the Hoshigaki. Currently they're trying to go through the Hoshigaki."

"Failing abjectly to go through the Hoshigaki," Naka-hawknose says quietly from where she's tidying the mountains of notes into something hopefully approaching order alongside Take and Akihisa. Those three were chosen for this mission because they all lack the distinctive Uchiha look, and they seem much more confident in themselves now than they were when Madara saw them off in the spring.

"That too," Chika agrees, rolling one shoulder. "So much so that the people they had managed to cow into obedience are kicking up a fuss and hiring shinobi from other parts of Water to rescue their sons taken away for 'training' and to do away with their daughter's 'husbands'. So the Yuki are involved and so are the Munashi and the Terumī, then the clans adjacent to _them_ tried to take advantage of several of their neighbours' best shinobi being away from home to expand a bit into their territory, kicking off _more_ local scuffles."

"It's a big old mess," Kamui agrees wryly, "but it _is_ less chaotic than it looks from the outside."

Madara hopes the notes fill in the gaps for him; he is starting to see the shape of the overall picture from Chika's introduction, but he is probably going to need to read _all_ of the scrolls and disparate snippets to be able to make considered and effective decisions. However he should get an overview first, to hear how things went and what stood out to his warriors.

"Give me the high points," he orders, "and then you can use the Clan Hall's bath house." It's private and nobody will kick them out if they decide they want to lounge in the pool for an hour or two; it's going to take him at _least_ that long to skim everything as it is.

"At once, Madara-sama!"


	11. Chapter 11

It's been almost two years since the coup in Earth Country and peace has managed thus far to limp on regardless for Konohagakure; it's rather encouraging. Her husband's treaty with Earth was annulled by the new daimyo, but was considerately replaced by another, more neutral one that Madara was happy to sign after minimal negotiation with the ambassador and a few minor adjustments to clauses that were probably only put in to test him. The coup has been good for the general political atmosphere as well, as the new Earth Daimyo has so far focused on consolidating his hold on his country and confronting the complaints of the various vassal nations south and west of Earth, which has significantly reduced the unrest there.

Wind has also settled rather and relationships with Konohagakure have thawed slightly, despite Hashirama's previous blunder in supporting an uprising in Sand Country. Kita suspects that Madara's role in forcing Earth Country to shift its focus to internal matters plays a part there; there is now a bunraku caravan that stops in Konohagakure for a month every autumn, which both she and Madara know very well is as much about espionage as trade. They welcome the puppeteers anyway; it's the caravan the Uchiha have longstanding connections with and their artistic contributions bring in nobles from all around Fire –nobody does bunraku theatre like Wind's shinobi puppeteers– so it's good for the village. Her privacy seals ensure they can't spy on private residences and the police station has more heavy-duty security seals, as do the mission offices, and the school is even better-defended. Plus the truly sensitive political business takes place at the Uchiha Compound, which is well outside the village and therefore not accessible to visitors.

There's an Uchiha guest hall in the village now, so she and Madara can host nobles and other important visitors, but they still live in the compound with those other Uchiha who also prefer a degree of seclusion from the large and rather noisy village. There's barely a quarter of the clan still living there permanently now, but the joint training Madara has set up for the village's shinobi is centred in the old Outguard hall for privacy and security's sake so it's not as isolated as it might be. Plenty of clansmen wander up regularly to visit friends and family who prefer the compound; 'barely a quarter' is still slightly over two-hundred people and a respectable number of out-clan shinobi also make personal visits.

Tobirama certainly visits a lot with Yukino, and has mentioned that the relative seclusion is something he appreciates; several other Hatake have gone out of their way to befriend those Uchiha who still live apart as well, part of which is apparently to have babysitters who don't live in the village, so clearly there's something cultural and potentially summons-related going on there. Not that Kita can blame them; it's certainly less stressful to know that her younger ones only have the run of the compound, rather than the entire village. Adatara may be four now, but that's still far too young to know how to deal safely with total strangers, which the village has quite a number of passing through almost all the time now.

Konohagakure may be peaceful, but she knows full well that peaceful is not at all the same as safe. If the village were 'safe' they wouldn't need a police force.

True safety doesn't really exist _–life_ is not safe– but the Uchiha compound is as close as Kita can reasonably get for her children and she's satisfied with that.

Her children who have grown up so _fast_. Toshi and Azami are sixteen and engrossed in their respective apprenticeships –Toshi to a court musician, which had been rather challenging to arrange, and Azami at one of the village's print workshops– so she barely sees either of them. Toshi is living at court for months on end, using her position to market wider village products on commission as much as various Uchiha wares, and Azami is no less enraptured by her newfound adulthood and maturity so rarely comes home to visit. Benten moved out entirely two years ago to live with a handful of other Outguard, seemingly disinclined to either court or be courted for the time being. She however _does_ visit regularly.

Kita has told both Madara and Hikaku that they should just leave her be; it's not like Benten _needs_ to marry when the clan is already so large. Her tall girl is happy and that's what matters.

Takahara is eleven and still far more interested in the history of his lineage – and the clan generally– than in the actual daily doings of said clan. Madara's finally starting to realise that his firstborn isn't really suited for leadership and changing the focus of his lessons with Takahara to match the boy's passion, tying in political details with historic documents and logistics with old letters and trading contracts. Their eldest son will have all the required theoretical knowledge to lead the Outguard, but his temperament is such that he's likely never going to have to put any of it into practice. He's far more interested in the fine details than the implied human suffering, and Madara knows all too well how badly a leader too focused on the details can damage a clan just as badly as one overly entranced with the big picture. The focus of leadership is something that has to shift alongside the scope of what and who is being lead, alongside the necessity of never, ever losing track of the wellbeing of the individuals involved.

The Outguard is just one section of the clan, so has to be run differently to how the wider clan is run, but the Outguard Head is also responsible for diplomatic matters on _behalf_ of the wider clan, which takes a very different approach. And that is without getting into the complexity of how the Outguard head is now de-facto head of Konohagakure's defences and responsible for overseeing joint training with a range of out-clan shinobi, which is different yet _again_. Madara may want to separate those positions out and create a new 'Head' position rather than leave so many different and clashing roles to a single Heir. As it is Izuna's doing most of the diplomatic work these days, so Madara can focus on clan and village.

Sukumo is nearly nine and already pestering her uncle Izuna for genjutsu lessons, whenever she's not pestering Kita for sealing lessons that is. Her bigger little girl wears her long wavy hair up in two round buns like mouse ears, emulating Mito's personal style, and is very visibly determined to be the clan's next seal-master. Her calligraphy is excellent for her age and she is quick with a needle, so Kita has a feeling her daughter will have no trouble at all attaining her dreams. She's already trying to design her own seals –genjutsu seals mainly– and experiencing occasional successes. Seeing her grasp complex concepts so quickly reminds Kita again that Uchiha mature early on the intellectual side; she will have to work hard to ensure Sukumo still takes the time to do normal child things like socialise and play, or else her daughter will find herself unexpectedly isolated by the time she's a teenager. Kita remembers all too well the surprise of realising –shortly after her engagement– that she'd done barely anything except stitch, seal, care for her caterpillars and help with her siblings at home for the previous two years; an inordinately long time for a child to retreat from their peers.

Mitama will not have that problem; the eight-year-old is always running around outside with his friends, when he's not attending classes with them, training with them or delightedly learning from his father. Kita has a feeling Mitama is more suited to Homeguard than Outguard, but with Takahara proven unsuited, Sukumo utterly disinterested and Shirakami too young, Mitama is the one her husband is currently focusing on providing Heir training to. Mitama certainly has no trouble at all empathising and sympathising with the theoretical and historical people in his lessons; the issue seems to be more that he wants _everybody_ to be happy, clan or not, which Madara is apparently finding uncomfortably reminiscent of his own childhood lessons.

Of course Madara doesn't censure his son for his soft heart like Tajima did him, but age and maturity mean he can now see how such unwillingness to stand against others would be _devastating_ for the Uchiha clan. Kita knows her husband really struggles to teach Mitama sometimes, the words in his throat snarling up like knotted silk as his father's voice echoes in his mind, but Madara is _trying_ and that's what matters. He is not thoughtlessly parroting Tajima and inflicting his own suffering on his tender-hearted son.

Such relentless self-examination and self-censorship are emotionally exhausting though; Kita has an open space in her timetable after Mitama's lessons, so Madara can sit in her study with her and recover as she makes tea, plays music, sews or writes.

Shirakami is nearly five and a very charming terror. He wants to know about _everything_ , remembers more of it that is really good for anybody's peace of mind and dotes aggressively on his little sister, which Adatara takes shameless advantage of in a way that leaves Ohabari-oba laughing breathlessly and cooing how they are _exactly_ like Madara and Izuna were at that age. Shirakami also has his father's messy hair and pout, which enhances the resemblance further; Adatara however is almost Kita herself in miniature, smooth hair, oval face, slim hands and all, but with Madara's eyes and ears.

Shirakami has Papa's nose _exactly_ , which is a bit painful really but still completely delightful. He has Papa's square hands too, not nimble enough for ninjutsu to come easily but with deft reflexes for delicate wirework and strong palms for wielding a hammer like a paper fan. If he decides to be a warrior he may well decide to take up Madara's massive gunbai, which would certainly be a sight to see. Or else a heavier blade than the usual katana, which would be far too light for him; he's a stocky and energetic boy, no traces of his premature birth lingering anywhere in body or mind.

Adatara is four and she has been learning patchwork from Kita since she was two, which was when she demanded to be allowed to join in with the sewing and didn't get bored within a few weeks like her older siblings had. Two years on she's still utterly fascinated with embroidery and her freehand stitches are slowly getting neater; thankfully she also likes chickens and singing, so Kita doesn't have any trouble getting her to do chores, attend the clan preparatory lessons and play outside. She also adores all her older siblings, for all that she takes shameless advantage of being the youngest; that's probably normal though.

Four years since she had a child, five beautiful children filling her home with joy and mess and still there's a part of her heart that would like another baby. All the annoyance and discomfort of the years bracketing Adatara's birth has long since faded and she's catching herself looking at the box crib and the toddler futon that Adatara and Shirakami have now outgrown, thinking wistfully of rolling the dice again and gambling with her life to see what new marvel she and Madara will bring into the world this time.

Maybe she'll take off the contraceptive seal and see what happens. It might be years before she has another baby anyway –Mitama and Shirakami were three years apart and she's thirty-four now, so likely less fertile– but she feels ready now. If she has no more children anyway… well. Tobirama's Yukino-chan is an adorable three-year-old and Sakurajima's second son Kōzushima is a very cute two-year-old. And no, she doesn't care at all that the happy little boy was born with blue eyes, indicating he'll never develop the sharingan; he doesn't _need_ to manifest the Uchiha's bloodline gift to be adorable or precocious.

Kita's not sure Sakurajima will have any more children after Kōzushima, if only because it might create the impression that she and her husband are trying to replace their 'defective' second son. On the other hand, Sakurajima has never been one to care what other people think and Kakuzu will _definitely_ do something underhanded and terrifying to anybody who says that in his or his sons' vicinity ever again; what he did the first time was bad enough, and Madara having made him promise not to do bloody violence to fellow clan-members isn't going to stop him.

Kita _knows_ her husband only extracted that promise so he wouldn't have to censure Kakuzu for landing people in the healers' care again and Kakuzu knows it too. Sakurajima's husband is however smart and capable enough to extract cold-blooded vengeance without implicating himself, and anybody who says that kind of thing about a child _definitely_ has it coming, clansman or not.

* * *

It's the thirteenth anniversary of the treaty with the Senju and Konohagakure is _packed_. There are nobles from the daimyo's court patronising the ryokan and browsing the markets, ninja from as far-flung places as Snow and Demon Country taking in the sights of the Elemental Nations' first shinobi village –Madara is resigned to that designation, if smug that _his_ shinobi village is such _only_ because over two-thirds of its inhabitants belong to shinobi clans– and all manner of farmers and merchants and other civilian visitors. Konohagakure is wealthy and generous with its success, and people of every stripe are drawn in to partake in their bounty.

Madara privately feels the Uchiha clan now has more money than is really sane or reasonable, so he is happy to encourage his wife's various and unavoidably expensive plans for the long-term betterment of their various civilian neighbours as well as the village's unaffiliated shinobi population. There's the multiple foster-homes for civilian and shinobi children without surviving relatives –mixed homes, so no child grows up ignorant of what it means to be either– rather than an orphanage such as various temples run, shinobi with young children receive supplemental income from the village coffers on top of mission pay, the clans are encouraged to give more than the standard ten percent tithe to the village coffers as a show of strength and affluence and there are multiple shops and restaurants that hand out stale food for free at the end of the day, simply because they can.

It makes for a cohesive village and even the Hatake seem to be settling in a little, despite barely any of them living in the village full-time. Madara's even seen a few of their warriors in the marketplace, despite there also being Senju buying at nearby stalls; what exactly the Hatake have against the Senju is fairly obvious to him, but Hashirama still doesn't get it. Well, he _knows_ –Tobirama told him– but he doesn't _understand_ why the fact of Butsuma's violation of their treaty the moment Senju Kikuno died means that the Hatake still refuse to treat directly with the Senju nearly thirty years later, or why Madara _and_ Tobirama both consider such aloofness to be expected and acceptable.

Kita understands; she was the one to gently coax Ohabari-oba and the other Lineage Heads into agreeing to allow the Hatake unrestricted foraging access to a large swathe of Uchiha forest, which had the astoundingly productive result of more than tripling that area's mushroom harvest. Nobody's been so crass as to _ask_ how the Hatake are doing it –the answer is undoubtedly a clan secret– but the Uchiha clan is most certainly benefitting and so is the wider village. Those other Lineage Heads are now extremely pleased with the outcome –some of those mushrooms are extremely rare and valuable– and Hashirama is no less delighted: it turns out his favourite food is mushroom soup, which Senju Kikuno used to make regularly when he was a child.

On a tangential note, nobody has yet mentioned to Hashirama that his mother was _not_ Senju Kikuno. Madara's pretty sure Tobirama has worked that out –he went through a phase of burying himself in his clan archives in his free time and spent hours on end just sitting silently in Kita's general vicinity when not wrestling with old documents– but the younger Senju brother hasn't _said_ anything yet. Clearly, because otherwise Madara would no doubt have had a sobbing Hashirama draped over him, wailing for over an hour about how his 'whole life was a lie' or some such.

All in all, Madara is grateful to have thus far avoided it. He would very much like to continue to avoid it, which seems plausible; there are very few Senju still alive who know without a shadow of a doubt who Hashirama's mother was. Those who _do_ know are smart enough to see how the Hatake Clan are only really interested in reaching out to Tobirama, but that they are willing to allow Hashirama's impression of a connection to continue even though it means allowing their children to interact with his. Were Hashirama to learn the truth, those tentative bonds of reconciliation would snap and all the older Senju are _deeply_ invested in the success of the village now. They've seen their grandchildren, met _great-grandchildren_ in some cases and watched those children grow up without the crushing weight of ever-present conflict.

Madara knows many of the Uchiha elders do now feel the same way, that there is little they wouldn't do to preserve the unexpected joy that comes from watching children grow up fearlessly and unmarked by death. Well, not _unmarked_ , but far less marked than his generation ever were at that age.

He's seen how Kita smiles at the reckless and enthusiastic curiosity of their children, of her quiet delight in the friendships forged that would have been unthinkable –that _had_ been unthinkable– little more than a decade ago. His wife's joy is a balm on his heart and a tremendous source of strength for him; Madara will give almost anything to keep what he has gained, all the things he could never quite believe that he would ever have. Fine dreams, but as distant and unreachable as the moon, ideals to live well reaching for.

Without Kita he'd never have seen how those lofty dreams were in truth almost within reach, that he has only to reach out and seize them for himself. He loves her more than he could ever say for that alone, and she has given him so much more than that.

It's a glorious spring day and the sakura park is _packed_ , mostly because Hashirama is a cheating cheat who does, in fact, have a really _good_ idea every once in a while, so _all_ of Konoha's sakura trees blossom twice: once in the early spring, then again on the anniversary of the treaty. Hence the now-entrenched tradition of sakura-viewing picnics to celebrate, along with fire-dancing in the evenings and all the festival food and games; all around Madara shinobi and civilians from over a dozen nations are all eating and talking together and the children are running around the paths and across the grass, dressed in resilient summer finery.

"Husband!"

Madara turns and clasps Kita's hands in his, bending down to almost rest his forehead against hers, not quite making contact so as not to smudge her makeup. "Wife," he replies, feeling his words rumble in his chest as desire blooms in his gut. Kita is always beautiful, but there is something about seeing her in a yukata he commissioned specially –a one-off print he designed himself– that makes her seem impossibly lovelier.

"And how is my husband on this fine day?" Kita asks him archly, the faint flex of her captured fingers around her fan betraying her desire to flutter it coquettishly in front of her face.

"Better for having found you, wife," Madara tells her solemnly, not releasing her hands. "Is there anything I might assist my wife with on this most auspicious morning?"

Kita's eyelashes droop, a teasing crease briefly appearing in the corner of her very proper gentle smile. "Can a wife not simply enjoy her husband's company?"

"How remiss of me," Madara replies fondly, releasing one hand and tucking the other over his arm. "Might I walk with my wife a little then, so that we might enjoy the sakura together?"

"That would please me." Her tone is oh-so-mild, but the last time she said those words was last night, in bed, and the allusion is very blatant _indeed_ to Madara's experienced ears. His wife is fairly subtle but she is by no means demure; he loves her all the more for her wicked ways.

"I strive to please my wife in all things," he reminds her softly as he leads her along the path, bowing to the various others promenading between the blossoming trees.

The way her eyes drop and her pulse flutters as she briefly leans into him tell him more than any amount of poetry ever could.

Later on, looking back at that moment, Madara will never be able to pin down what exactly made him look up from his wife's teeth denting her lower lip so charmingly, what prompted him to glance briefly across the liberally pink-dusted park. Something in his peripheral vision? That vague foreboding that is almost a sixth sense for battlefield shinobi who live to see thirty? It certainly wasn't his chakra sense; it's nowhere near sensitive enough. Had it been his ears, so keenly attuned to the high-pitched voices of his children and the subtle differences in tone that herald discomfort and fear rather than excitement?

Whichever it is, he looks up.

He _sees_ –

–Lightning shinobi clumped together, at least two full squads-worth–

–short horns peeking through golden and silver hair on the leaders–

–Madoma, fists clenched and chin raised defiantly–

– _surrounded_ –

–Sukumo behind Madoma, clutching Adatara close–

–Gold-haired one _too_ close to Madoma–

– _ **knife**_ –

* * *

The annual celebration of the Uchiha-Senju treaty has gone from being an Uchiha-only affair, to a village festival lasting an entire day, then two days and has since the ten-year mark expanded to occupy an entire _week_ , drawing in performers, shinobi and nobles alike to fill Konohagakure to bursting. The performers play and sing and dance in parks, inns and even the onsen as much as in theatres and tea houses, the shinobi gossip and spend hard-earned funds on Uchiha steel, trading information in kind and sounding out travel prospects in far-flung areas, as well as more long-term matters such as arranging marriages.

Konohagakure is apparently considered neutral ground for such things these days, which Tobirama finds terribly amusing. More and more of the smaller nomadic clans are starting to put down roots, in Grass, Rain and River Country especially, but all those clans are now on vaguely friendly terms with Konohagakure, in part due to his and Madara's efforts to root out incompetence and misconduct in the many vassal nations between Wind and Earth.

Those shinobi may not be making Fire their home, but they are no less allies of the Uchiha and Senju clans and they know it. Konohagakure already has sturdy trading contracts with most of them.

The nobles started visiting out of curiosity, to stare at shinobi going about their daily business as though they were kirin in a menagerie, but nowadays they come for the ryokan, the impeccably aesthetic public parks and gardens, the various specialty foods of the village's clans and of course for their craft work. The shinobi-made ceramics from four different kilns, Uchiha and Aburame silks, Sarutobi ropes and tea kettles, Kurama prints and paintings, Senju transom boards and water-carved stone lanterns, Yamanaka dyes and seeds, Akimichi spices, Nara medicines, Inuzuka leathers, and most recently Hatake mushrooms.

Among many other, more mundane products such as every village produces of course, things such as plain and printed linens, various styles of kasa hats, paper talismans –although Konohagakure omamori tend to involve actual fūinjutsu; the Uchiha make a lot of money every year on their 'restful sleep' talismans– and so on. This year's new stall is some Uchiha selling bamboo flutes, well-made and tuneful with different sizes producing different tones, and there's been enough interest that Tobirama suspects the maker may well retire from the Outguard to make flutes full-time rather than as a hobby.

Madara is always cheerful when one of his warriors finds a civilian craft to sustain themselves on, wishing them the very best and often wanting to invest money in the fledgling business.

Because the festival lasts a full week and the village is full of strangers, there are no shinobi skills classes held while it is happening. Partly for security reasons, but mostly because there's no point trying to make children pay attention when they _know_ fun and exciting things are taking place elsewhere. Classroom lessons continue however, mostly because busy parents need to have _somebody_ keeping an eye on their children for part of the day. Tobirama has found that only his most advanced fūinjutsu class can focus on their calligraphy when it is festival time, so rather than expecting the younger children to memorise kanji he teaches them origami, how to make and paint masks and turns the history lessons towards the origins of various traditions and the geography lessons towards the festivals held in other countries.

Of course he is not giving _all_ the lessons, but over the years he has somehow ended up being the person planning what should be taught to each class at what age, how these things should be tested and so on. Everybody younger than fourteen now calls him 'Bira-sensei' as a matter of course, to the point that he suspects a good number of parents have no idea that the teacher who filled their small child's head with disgusting facts about mould and parasites –because keeping clean is very important and children like that kind of thing– is the same person as 'Senju Tobirama.'

Tobirama honestly likes it this way. It's not like the village doesn't have quite a number of white-haired people now the Hatake are starting to settle in and while he does wear the Senju mon on his clothing, it's always been his armour and happuri as much as his hair that identified him to his enemies. One shock of white hair in a mass of brown and blond was distinctive; now he is one white head among many, scattered across a mass of other colours ranging from black to red through every other possible shade, and he looks a great deal more like his cousin Ryokubu than he does Hashirama. Side by side, it's clear that only his nose, ears and slightly paler skin tone come from his father, along with his more solid build and Elemental affinity. He'd always known he favoured his mother in looks, but only recently has it really been hammered home how very Hatake he is; if he wasn't so well-known as 'Bira-sensei' he suspects most people would default to addressing him as 'Hatake-san' despite the Senju mon on his clothing.

He's also been hearing more about the other, more subtle ways he resembles his mother from Barano-ba and Hiruno-ba, from favourite foods to the way he sighs when faced with somebody he feels is being obtuse. It's really nice, hearing the details the leopards never thought to mention.

"Bira-sensei!"

Of course he only does classroom lessons in the mornings at this time of year, so he will naturally encounter his personal class of now-twelve-year-old students out and about at the festival. "Good afternoon, Hiruzen-kun, Danzō-kun." The two boys are fast friends and almost inseparable, although they usually have Kagami rounding out their posse. Of course Kagami is probably watching over his younger brothers for his mother –Hagane is eight and Makoto is five– so it's not so surprising that he's elsewhere.

"Sensei, have you seen Kagami-kun?" The shinobi skills classes are entirely on first-name basis, because a class with five or more Uchiha in it cannot be held on a last-name basis without descending into an unfortunate comedy of errors, which has the happy effect of dramatically improving cross-clan relations.

Tobirama considers the question, senses stretching. "No; he's across the park with Takahara-kun." Madara's oldest son is watching his little brothers along with Hikaku's boy and Izuna's two children, while Izuna and Hikaku are talking to Benten –no, that's Hidaka not Benten– and Hideo, who's a grown woman now and married with a toddler besides. Married to Hidaka, in fact; embarrassingly, it's only since that marriage that Tobirama has been able to consistently distinguish Benten from Hidaka via chakra. He's known both of them for _thirteen years_ and they're not even the same _gender_ but their chakra has been confoundingly identical from the moment Benten finished puberty.

"Which direction, Bira-sensei?"

Tobirama turns to point. "That–"

Chakra surges kiln-hot in his senses, fire laced with preen oil and cloves –Madara– to form an opaque shell. It is swiftly followed by a second chakra surge –finest _kyara_ and scales; Kita– that _stretches_ across his chakra sense in a way that confuses him for the split-second it takes him to realise that he is sensing her wani transformation.

He snaps to face the imminent fight as his bones vibrate and his gut knots uncomfortably; Kita's wani form, like a more normal crocodile, has a very low vocalisation range: it is only audible in proximity. However it can be felt at far greater distances.

There is a tearing crack, followed a volley of snaps; evidently the wani is too large to comfortably negotiate the sakura park's aesthetically placed trees without damaging them.

"Sensei?"

"Stay here," he orders sharply before shunshining towards the ruckus, aware of the screams beginning to pierce the air. Whatever prompted Madara to call upon the first stage of his defensive Mangekyō technique is _definitely_ a threat to everybody present.

* * *

Madara breathes, eyes fixed straight ahead and hand pressed firmly around the knife hilt stuck between his ribs. He doesn't have the fine control for Yori's Yin technique, so it's all he can do to patch the hole in his lungs around the blade so as to continue breathing despite being impaled. Considering he's also holding up the ribcage of his Susano-o over the children, he knows that the moment it's safe to drop out of Mangekyō he's probably going to fall over. He's already down on one knee as it is.

"Chichi, Chichi!" His youngest pulls insistently on his yukata sleeve.

"Shush Adatara! Chichi is _busy_ ," Sukumo hisses, sharply untangling her little sister's fingers and pulling her away from him in spite of the loud huffs from his youngest that are very likely to become screams if not addressed in short order.

Madara is indeed busy. He's _very_ busy making sure his Susano-o is as dark and opaque as possible, so his daughters and Madoma can't see out of it. It's bad enough that they can _hear_ what's going on outside.

Harsh chuffs, bone-shaking rumbles, visceral meaty noises and screaming. Lots and lots of screaming, although the majority is at least coming from some way off, so it is more likely to be the bystanders panicking than his wife's victims. Madara doesn't think any of _those_ are still alive; he had maybe two seconds after taking the hit aimed at Senju Madoma's throat to launch the shinobi who stabbed him with a skeletal Susano-o backhand and see his wife muscle through the trees in her sea dragon form, head darting forwards and snatching said gold-haired shinobi out of the air and shaking him like a rat, at which point Madara had focused on enhancing the opacity of the defensive formation to spare the children the brutality of the battlefield.

Madoma is sitting behind him, breath unsteady with his head resting against Madara's spine, as at his side eleven-year-old Sachimi sings at the top of her voice, eyes closed and bravely trying to drown out the horrors she knows are mere metres away. Sukumo joins in as Adatara starts to whine; little Yukino –Madara hadn't even seen her, hiding between Sukumo and Sachimi as she had been– is already yowling along in a startlingly cheerful feline fashion, which almost does more to muffle the screaming than the singing does.

He breathes, aware of the hot dampness seeping through his clothing, staining the cotton front and back. One more breath. And another. The children _need_ him.

One more breath.

* * *

Tobirama steps out of shunshin in time to see two Lightning shinobi have their upper bodies incinerated by a thin lance of almost white-hot flame; the smell of burning flesh is not something he has missed. At all.

Kita's wani form is however a _lot_ bigger than Tobirama remembers it being.

And far more athletic; the sea-dragon – _definitely_ worthy of being called a dragon now– leaps into the air in time for a lightning jutsu to flash harmlessly along its scales, lands in a crouch and launches itself at terrifying speed at its unfortunate assailant, neck stretching forwards.

Arterial spray adds vermillion accents to the nearby sakura.

Four shinobi are still fighting –three, Tobirama amends as one is bowled off his feet by the dragon's tail and tumbles right into crushing jaws– but the fight is woefully one-sided. If they had any sense they'd surrender, to him or to Hikaku, who has just arrived on the far side of the carnage.

Or Sakurajima, who is hanging _well_ back behind Kita, her husband keeping a firm grip on both their sons' shoulders as she briskly finishes strapping their infant daughter to his chest and pulls out one of her hairpins, twirling it like a dagger.

Two shinobi; Tobirama doubts he will ever be able to appreciate sakura ever again without his brain adding in the sickly-sweet note of ruptured intestines to the floral bouquet.

One shinobi. Tobirama leans out of the way of the severed leg's ballistic trajectory.

There's a loud crack; the last shinobi is dropped and aggressively trampled. The dragon does not stop when its unfortunate victim's ribs shatter, despite being dirty to the knee with blood, mud and offal. The vindictive stomping has a faintly weasel-like flare to it, in keeping with the new proportions of its body: fairly long neck, longer body and even longer tail, all held up off the ground by strong legs with clawed feet. The long snout hasn't really changed, but there's a slight bony frill bracketing its face now, complete with two pairs of short horns emerging from the top of its head along the edge of the frill.

He's not the only person watching; there are Homeguard Uchiha scattered across the park, Izuna coordinating them via a collaborative genjutsu, a scattering of Senju and Hatake on the outer borders and several Akimichi who have partially powered up their growth jutsu. The bunker Susano-o is still as opaque and dark as it has been since Madara raised it barely minutes ago; Tobirama hopes the children are not unduly distressed. He knows his daughter's in there but he can't feel her past Madara's protective shroud of chakra.

The dragon stops trampling and walks a restless circle around the carnage, snarling and chuffing in a way that sends atavistic shivers up Tobirama's spine. Then it turns towards the park gate –where Tobirama can feel Hashirama arguing with Izuna– and takes a step.

Tobirama is moving almost before the realisation lands; the dragon angles its head to watch his approach, tail-tip bouncing almost idly against the side of a half-fallen tree.

"Kita," he says, because he really can't see the point of honorifics in this situation.

The dragon rumbles, the not-quite-sound making his bones vibrate.

"Kita, how is Madara?"

The dragon turns towards the egg-shaped dome that is the basic Susano-o manifestation, mincing almost daintily through gore, churned mud and shattered bone until it can circle around it in ever-tighter circles. Only then, once it is half-hidden by elegantly graded slate-to-ivory scales, does the chakra construct finally flicker out.

The dragon's head drops faster than Tobirama can follow; he's standing on her shoulder in an instant, the revealed chakra of those who were inside inciting him to carelessness.

"Tō!" Yukino waves energetically, but stays where she's sitting between Adatara and Sachimi.

Tobirama smiles at his daughter, senses tightly focused on his immediate surroundings. The children feel fine; a little shaken perhaps, but unharmed. Madara however is on his knees, leaning heavily against the dragon's jaw, a knife hilt protruding from between his lower ribs and a growing bloody stain on both sides of his yukata.

"Bira-ji!" Madoma rushes towards him, stopping dead just short of blue-gray scales. Tobirama drops carefully down to the ground inside the curve of Kita's scales so that his nephew's face is no longer level with his shins.

"Mado-kun." Madoma throws himself forwards, burying his face in Tobirama's chest.

"Bira-ji, Madara-sama _saved_ me," his nephew's voice hitches, "the knife was aimed at my neck and I couldn't _move_ but he was _there_ and –and Bira-ji, he's been bleeding all this time!"

Tobirama hugs his nephew briefly, then steps sideways and rests a hand on Madara's shoulder, inches from the bloody teeth he's just watched rip armoured shinobi apart like so much washi. "I need to pull the knife out."

Madara sighs and gestures, the motion barely more than a twitch but easily conveying that Tobirama should get on with it. Rolling his eyes, Tobirama crouches, reaches under the dragon's jaw with his free hand, braces them both and yanks the knife out in one quick movement, his chakra already patching the internal wounds as the blade jerks free of the inside of Madara's ribcage. The rough Yin-work the other man had been using to slow his bleeding curls to mirror and reinforce the healing jutsu, making it fairly easy to replenish blood loss alongside patching lung tissue; the little twist of chakra to sterilise the wound is all that really needs to be added, since the Uchiha generally take care of such things with seals.

Hot, blood-scented breath huffing on the back of his neck is _deeply_ unnerving; Tobirama elbows the dragon in the jaw.

"Do _not_ do that," he hisses, turning just enough to glare at one visible sharingan eye, most of his focus on the delicate work of feathering Madara's lung tissue back together into a cohesive whole.

The answering snort makes his entire spine shiver.

"Imōto, be so kind as to make my life easier, would you?" comes Izuna's voice from across the clearing. The dragon chuffs, a deep, sharp sound that feels like the flat of a Mizu greatsword hitting Tobirama's chest.

Madara chuckles. "She's not once made your life easy and you know it, otōto," he says, raising his voice but keeping one hand hooked over the back of the dragon's skull. Still feeling the blood loss then; Tobirama twists his chakra to encourage Madara's bone marrow to compensate faster.

"Of course she hasn't," Izuna scoffs, leaping lightly across the newly-created clearing and landing neatly on the dragon's hip, "but she could _try_ for once. I deflected the kudzu for you, imōto! Haven't I earned a little consideration?"

The dragon's upper jaw lifts, smoke trailing out between the exposed teeth. It does however uncurl its body from around Madara and the children, unnecessarily heavy steps forcing Izuna to stick to its scales with chakra. Tobirama wishes Izuna would stop referring to Anija as 'the kudzu' and variations thereof; yes, he can see _exactly_ why but it's not _helpful_.

"Lovely wife," Madara croons as the dragon's bony crest flexes against his fingers. "Beautiful and terrible beloved, mother of my many excellent children, ruler of my heart and keeper of my soul, my own Toyotama-hime, would you come home to me now?"

The dragon tosses its head, the twitching movement travelling right down its spine and making the spines of its narrow dorsal ridge rattle, radiating the general feeling that this form is perfectly adequate for anything she might want to do today.

"You're not going to fit in the bathing pool like that," Tobirama points out practically. "Or under the showers." Kita is terribly fastidious about cleaning up, despite not minding getting dirty in the slightest; it's just that once a messy task is _over_ she is generally very quick to wash and extremely meticulous about changing all her clothing. Considering the mud, gore and human waste splattering the dragon's clawed feet and up across its pale underside, it's highly likely Kita will want to bathe even if the mess doesn't carry over. Tobirama rather hopes it _doesn't_ carry over, just as he's hoping her clothes _do_ ; he's not seen them lying anywhere, but the first and only time he's seen her transform before now that was _not_ the case.

There is a deep, rumbling and distinctly put-upon sigh, then the dragon fades away like smoke, dropping Izuna to the ground; he lands on his feet with ease. Kita is simply _there,_ leaning against her husband, fully dressed in her swallow-patterned festival yukata and geta with makeup still pristine, but having lost her elaborate hairpins somewhere; her hair hangs past her hips in a smooth indigo-lit black mass, longer then her husband's and far more orderly.

It's also _deeply_ inappropriate for Tobirama to be looking at her with her hair like that; she doesn't normally wear it loose, so this is tantamount to being undressed. Or at least underdressed; Tobirama lets go of Madara's shoulder –he can lean on his wife– and pointedly turns to pick up Yukino. "Have a fun adventure, cub?" He asks.

Yukino nods enthusiastically, leaning into his chest. "Ji-sama protected us and Sachimi-nee sang songs with me!"

Hikaku's younger daughter looked more stressed, likely due to her being rather more aware of the peril than Yukino was, but the eleven-year-old does manage to smile.

"Thank you for watching over my daughter," Tobirama says to her, then turns to catch Sukumo and Madoma's eyes too. "All of you. Now, who's hungry?" He knows from his own early battlefield experiences that fear is exhausting.

"I could eat, Bira-ji," Sukumo decides, letting go of Adatara so the five-year-old can run to her mother for a hug.

"Let's get karāge," Sachimi decides.

"Okonomiyaki," Madoma counters, having finally regained more healthy colour.

"Barbeque," Sukumo disagrees; when did she develop a taste for Akimichi cooking? Not that it is bad, but it is certainly _not_ what he wants to eat when the air around them still smells faintly of charred human flesh.

"Tempura!" Yukino demands, beating a fist against Tobirama's shoulder. "Tempura, Tō!"

"Let's go and see what we can find, shall we?" Tobirama suggests. That way he can stop overhearing what Madara is murmuring to Kita as he does her hair and stop feeling all the ways she's encouraging him through her chakra. Izuna is right: they're shameless. Konoha –those members of it close enough to see the mess at least– can witness that for themselves, if they haven't done so already.

The post-battle reports can wait until the children have eaten and settled enough to sleep.

* * *

Kita knows she has a temper and that it comes out when she's afraid. It's the only thing that really makes her angry; that instant of panic, the foreshadowing of imminent loss, the potential for terrible, aching grief. Losing somebody you love is the worst feeling in the world, so those moments when it seems oh-so-likely to happen shake her to her bones and leave her by turns furious and weepy.

In this case, she had been happily flirting with her husband –in the village, in the _park_ , where it was supposed to be _safe_ – and he'd glanced up and vanished. She'd felt his chakra flinch before she even saw where he'd gone, felt him the injury and when she'd turned and _seen_ –

–their children those shinobi the _knife_ they were _guests_ how _**dare**_ –

–she'd felt betrayed. She'd also been utterly terrified, the presence of newly-revealed enemy shinobi in the heart of what is supposed to be their _home_ bringing back the terror of Toku-chan's death, child-killers in the heart of clan grounds and Kita had reacted the way Ohabari-oba had taught her to with all those lessons about the most basic and fundamental duties of the Homeguard.

"The Homeguard is not like the Outguard, Kita-chan. If a Homeguard member faces an enemy shinobi, that means the Outguard has already failed: the sanctity and security of the Clan compound has been breached. Our warriors may well be dead and we must act as though they _are_ dead, as though there will be no rescue or reinforcements, because for all we know there may well not be. We must therefore act swiftly, accurately and efficiently, going directly for the kill, so as to dispatch the enemy before us and seek out any others who have breached our security. When you are Homeguard every second spent in a fight is a second in which our family is dying, every _second,_ Kita-chan. So _never_ hesitate."

Kita is not a warrior; she's never going to be a warrior. But that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to kill; Naka-sensei made sure she knew all the ways, not just with naginata but fan and hairpin and sleeve-knife, silk thread and knotted handkerchief. That is how the Homeguard do things.

It's _so_ much easier to kill while defending children than it is when only defending herself. She feels far less conflicted afterwards, too.

Sighing, Kita leans into her husband's hands as he rubs her shoulders under the shower spray. She's not actually dirty at all –the mess made in her other form does not carry over to her skin– but she feels grubby and the smell of blood and offal lingers from mere proximity. Her geta will have to be scrupulously cleaned –they are probably being scrubbed already– and her yukata laundered.

She has made a mess of the sakura park in dragon form; she is over twenty metres long now, far too large to not make a mess when focused on fighting. Hashirama will surely be fussing over the shattered and toppled trees even now, coaxing them back to health and ensuring none of them die, although they may well be oddly shaped. He's terribly fond of those trees and inordinately proud of them for blooming twice like he 'asked' them to.

Kita lets her husband lead her into the pool, where Izuna and Tobirama are wrangling all their respective children –as well at hers and Madara's– as E watches and pointedly does not help at all. Nine children is rather a lot for two men to manage alone, especially when the little ones are naked, wet and experiencing something not entirely unlike a post-battle rush. Takahara, dutiful soul that he is, is at least _trying_ to help, but he has his arms full of little sister –Adatara is refusing to let go of him– so he can't really help catch the giggling trio of Makuma, Shinmoe and Shirakami who are refusing to get into the pool. Yukino is clinging to her father's neck like a monkey, Ena and Mitama are having a water fight and Sukumo is quietly sat next to her aunt, ignoring the ruckus with her hands primly over her ears.

As Madara closes the door behind them Tobirama finally loses his temper and animates the water, snatching each misbehaving child up with a translucent tentacle and dragging them all onto the higher of the pool seating ledges to a chorus of delighted shrieks.

"Aaaah! Chichi! Help!" Shinmoe squeals, flopping like a hooked fish.

"Not a chance," Izuna retorts, sliding into the water beside his wife. "You could have been a good boy but you wanted to be _naughty_ , now face the consequences!" His tone is light and he's grinning though, so it's clear he's not actually angry.

Tobirama huffs, also slipping into the water and settling his towel behind his head, one arm steadying his daughter against his chest. "Settle," he orders Makuma sternly. The redhead whines, still twitching; Kita knows Uzumaki now and Makuma is more Uzumaki than not; it's going to take him a while to calm down properly. Mito is the exception that proves the rule there, although she has admitted to having been rather more excitable when she was younger. Most of her cousins however did _not_ grow out of it.

"Deep breaths," Tobirama adds firmly, leading back and half-closing his eyes. "In: one, two, three, four, and five. Out: one, two, three, four, and five."

Madara steps into the pool as Kita's ears are filled with the sound of small children deliberately moderating their breathing, excited chakra signatures settling down in time with the exercise. Her husband then sets his towel aside and helps her in as well, double-checking her hair to make sure it won't trail in the water. Kita already knows it won't, but fussing over her like this settles her husband so she is happy to let him indulge himself.

She's tired; it's not truly physical or really connected to her chakra, but her Mangekyō transformation does take a lot out of her in more subtle spiritual ways. She's going to be out of sorts for at least a week as she recovers, irritable, defensive and faintly lethargic. Noticing the subtler effects of the transformation took some time, but she and Madara both know the signs now, just as she knows that Amaterasu makes her husband paranoid, Susano-o inspires a sense of invincibility –leading to risk-taking and carelessness– and Tsukuyomi encourages a person's sadistic tendencies. Izuna particularly struggles there –Tsukuyomi was how his Mangekyō first manifested– and Kita knows her brother-in-law works hard to overcome the patterns of thought that years of frequent usage have ingrained in his psyche.

There are more costs to Mangekyō than just the obvious ones. Kita knows that her husband has spent time with his similarly afflicted Lineage Heads ferreting out similar issues unique to their respective manifestations, but she doesn't know what they are; it's not her business and they haven't told her. She suspects the Yomotsushikone involves decreased empathy and sympathy though, going by what she knew of Taka and how that Mangekyō works. Having a change of heart mid-hunt because your enemy is abruptly sympathetic seems like something that would be undesirable.

"Haha, Haha you were a _dragon_!"

"Haha you're a _huge_ dragon!"

"Ba-sama you're so _awesome_!"

Kita smiles at the wriggling children, who have now noticed her presence and are all clamouring for her attention. "I am Toyotama, am I not?"

"I thought the stories meant you were a dragon on the _inside_ , not on the _outside_!"

"Haha, will _I_ be a dragon when I grow up?" Of course Adatara wants to know that.

"I'm only a dragon on the outside because so many of the people I loved died when I was little," she tells the abruptly attentive children, "and then one of our clansmen did something terrible that hurt my heart a lot. I hope none of you ever become dragons on the outside, because if that happens it means you have been hurt too much to survive _without_ becoming a dragon."

"Oh." Adatara rather looks like she wants to pout. "But I _want_ to be a dragon, Haha!"

"I'm sure there are less painful ways to become a dragon if that's what you really want, Ada-chan."

"Like with sealing?" Sukumo asks shrewdly.

"Haha, teach me sealing!"

"Haha _I_ want to be a dragon _too_!"

"Quiet!" Madara demands. Instantly all the children settle, although most of them are still vibrating with eagerness.

"As far as I know there is no sealing method that lets a person turn into a dragon." The disappointed pouts are legion. "However, if you study hard and pay attention in your classes, you might one day be able to invent such a seal." And now half of them have decided it sounds too slow and boring, but the other half are keen again. Said 'other half' now involving Makuma, who is very good at sealing for his age but had thus far not really been into the dragon discussion, due to not being Uchiha and therefore knowing he lacks Mangekyō potential entirely.

"However that is for later," her husband concludes firmly. "Right now we are having a _bath_."

"Hai Chichi."

"Hai Ji-sama."

The children settle into appropriate bath-time manners, properly this time, and Tobirama finally releases them from his water jutsu. Kita finds it adorably amusing that both of Tobirama's children have decided to emulate Ena and Shinmoe in calling her husband 'Ji-sama.' That neither Tobirama nor Izuna have ever thought to contest said implicit affirmation of kinship just makes it better.

* * *

Madara is _not_ going to be apologising for his wife to the Fire Daimyo, no matter that he has deliberately created that impression to those Lightning nobility currently in Konohagakure so as to ensure they do not kick up a fuss about the deaths of half their shinobi 'bodyguards.' His wife's behaviour was as appropriate and proportional as ever and he is very pleased with it; those who threatened their children are dead, it was swift enough that there is comparatively little damage to the village and there is evidence enough of the Lightning Daimyo's complicity for Madara to be able to demand the Fire Daimyo take action on his behalf.

If the Fire Daimyo does not take action then Madara will have just cause to move against Lightning himself, acting as a righteous nobleman assaulted on his own land rather than merely as a slighted mercenary leader. Madara has no doubt that the daimyo _will_ act; the Uchiha are now a wealthy and influential cornerstone of Fire Country's economy and he will not want to unduly offend them.

The politics leave a sour aftertaste, but Madara has learned this battlefield well and has every intention of winning the war Lightning have started. They targeted _his_ children as an opening skirmish and that _cannot_ go unanswered.

Interestingly enough, it is while he is overseeing the autopsy of the Two Lights and their associates early the following morning that a formal message from the Hatake arrives, which prompts him to leave supervision to Hikaku and change into appropriate clothing for the requested audience. The Hatake are an old samurai lineage, back from the days when all warriors were chakra-trained, and their ancestors' refusal to commit seppuku after their Lord's family died led them to become ronin. Over time ronin became shinobi, despite their maintaining a number of distinctly samurai traditions –such as the focus on proper sword etiquette and warrior dress– and their clan has flourished.

Therefore Madara dresses in his armour and reversed coat rather than a sumptuous silk kimono; this is a meeting between warriors, not nobles, and it is certainly not an audience by a noble for a clan retainer, even though the Hatake do now reside almost exclusively on Uchiha land. The Hatake are _not_ Uchiha retainers.

He still serves tea. Thick tea is mark of civilisation and utmost respect, and Madara has nothing but respect for this varied yet united clan of thoughtful and effective warriors, who have abandoned their out-clan kin and home ranges in the mountains of Lightning so as to protect their children from the ambitions of the Lightning Daimyo. The warriors native to Frost, Hot Springs and north-eastern Fire still roam there, but their families are now largely resident in Sora-ku and its environs, farming the no-longer-barren plain rather than in the mountains they were born in and training their children in woodcraft on the more temperate hillsides around Konohagakure.

As is appropriate, the Hatake Lineage Heads' reasons for requesting to meet with him does not get mentioned until the tea bowl and accessories have been put away and a regular pot of leaf tea is brought out with everyday cups. Then, when all seven have been served, Madara opens the discussion:

"So what is it that you wish to discuss with me, honoured ones?" Six of the heads are men and one is a women, although Hatake Barano is considered a placeholder since the only person currently holding the leopard contract is Senju Tobirama. Barano's brother Yōbai was the previous head, but their lineage's position is apparently somewhat precarious right now. Madara is politely ignoring said irregularity, it not being his business; the rest of the Hatake are endorsing her authority, so questioning it would be rude.

Hatake Kabocha, the oldest warrior present at fifty-seven years old, sets down his teacup in a businesslike fashion. "The Hatake request the privilege of supporting you before the daimyo, Uchiha-sama," he says blandly, almond eyes curving up into cheerful slits and making his usual affable mask even more unreadable.

"Might I be informed of why it is that the Hatake wish to speak at court on this matter?" Madara has a fairly good idea of the answer to that question already, but confirmation is good to have and clarity is always beneficial. Better to have facts than plausible assumptions.

Hatake Sōzu inclines his head, white curls flopping over his eyes as he delicately sets his own cup on the table with massive hands. "The Hatake have already experienced the Lightning Daimyo's greed," he says mildly, tilting his head to one side so his unruly hair slides away from his face. "We abandoned our homes and kinsmen rather than see our children and heritage stolen by his shinobi, who sought to acquire our bloodline and inheritance for their own ends. The village he is building in the northern mountains is one that does not acknowledge the ties of any clan; rather all are in service to the state, and the state alone."

"Meaning the daimyo, of course," Hatake Gin agrees dryly, his eyes lidded and general demeanour one of resigned irritation. "The commander of Kumogakure is his kinsman; an illegitimate younger sibling trained first as a bodyguard and later as a field commander, I believe."

Clearly Lightning Country's shinobi program is even more tightly wedded to its daimyo than Earth Country's could ever hope to be. "I would welcome your standing witness before the Fire Daimyo on the Lightning Daimyo's intentions," Madara says smoothly. The honour of the Hatake is well-known and still respected; the court will not question their testimony.

"It is our pleasure to offer the Uchiha Clan our support in this matter," Hatake Hōren drawls amiably, which could mean anything really. The Hatake are far more subtle a clan than their longstanding allegiance with so many different –and largely predatory– summons implies; their ability to obfuscate and mask their intentions is enough to given even an Uchiha pause.

Madara has also seen evidence of a clan-wide sense of humour that shades towards deadpan mockery rather than the more usual practical jokes and crude puns that most of the rest of the shinobi population favours; he would probably have missed it himself if his wife's sense of humour hadn't also slid that way when she is annoyed at people she is required to be polite to. That resolute mock-seriousness makes it very hard to tell whether a Hatake is poking fun or not, so Madara is doing his best to ignore paranoia in official settings. He's heard his wife talk about 'half in jest, all in seriousness' and he is well aware that just because somebody is cracking a joke, it does _not_ mean that they aren't taking things seriously.

He remembers the war; sometimes the only way to keep moving is to laugh, because otherwise you have to scream and then you'd never stop.

* * *

Sitting to one side of the daimyo in his finest sokutai, Madara waits patiently as the emissary from Lightning attempts to insist that Madara's wife has baselessly slaughtered his citizens, then in the next breath that the accusation of said citizens being soldiers under his authority is completely unfounded. Madara does not laugh, no matter how much he wants to snort scornfully at the messenger; the entire group of shinobi who had cornered his daughters and niece had been wearing the white asymmetrical armour-weave jackets that the daimyo is issuing to his new private army. Armour-weave is not a new material, but it is expensive to make and rather finicky to dye, so most shinobi clans don't bother with it. It's only really suitable as an armour substitute, and steel and leather are both far cheaper, less regulated and easier to fit properly. Armour-weave has to be made in a laboratory and is best woven on a mechanical loom, so generally it is the daimyo's guards who wear it as padded jackets.

Armour-weave is also issued to the capital's fire-fighters because it neither burns nor melts, but shinobi generally do not bother with it due to the expense and the difficulty in getting it repaired or adjusted. That the Lightning shinobi were wearing it at _all_ implies they have their daimyo's support, something the Fire Daimyo did not need to be told to realise.

Said Daimyo is looking no more pleased by the blatant lies being peddled than Madara is feeling, which rather suggests that suitably serious steps will soon be taken against this assault on Fire Country's sovereignty. Madara is rather looking forward to it, even though it may well mean a short war; such a conflict would be on a national scale not a local one and far more ritualised than regular shinobi combat. Yes, people will still die, but the Lightning Daimyo's greed is such that there would have been more deaths anyway. At least in a formal international conflict there is no hiding the carnage, nor any way for the man who instigated this to conceal his self-serving arrogance from the rest of the Elemental Nations.


	12. Chapter 12

Thirteen years of peace is not so bad, Kita feels, especially since the treaty with the Senju is still holding so they do technically still _have_ peace. It's just that all those years of peace have led outsiders to become incautious and forget how dangerous both their clans are –never mind all their new allies– so this will serve as a reminder. It is a true war as well, supported and authorised by the daimyo rather than squirreled away and presented as 'trading disputes' as their clans act as proxies for other powers. she hasn't seen 'true' warfare in this lifetime, but her husband says the records imply a great deal more politics on a national and international scale than any of the trading disputes he's been involved with. No matter how hard-fought some of those 'disputes' were.

Formally speaking, the Fire Daimyo has announced an embargo on goods from Lightning in retaliation for the 'unjustified assault on a member of his court,' banned the sale of Fire Country goods to Lightning Country merchants and clients and forbidden passage of any Lightning-allied shinobi into Fire Country. Summer is only just beginning, so merchants and traders will have time to find other customers for this year's rice harvest, but that also means that the Lightning Court will have four months to see their coffers dwindle and their crops of tubers and spring vegetables fail to sell, four months to complain and foment rebellion before the rice is harvested to project the unlikelihood of their being able to buy any to see them through the upcoming winter. The shinobi meanwhile will find themselves with limited work due to not being permitted to enter Fire while protecting clients, limited pay due to reduced working opportunities and forced to turn either to farming or to theft. Farming requires land, good weather and considerable experience to be remotely successful. Theft on the other hand is easy, especially for shinobi; looting is child's play when you have chakra at your disposal. Assuming of course that their daimyo will not be feeding them regardless, since he might struggle to do that without rice.

Hot Water Country's daimyo has proclaimed his allegiance to Fire and extended the embargo to cover his own nation's merchants, which is a very shrewd political move as it means that Fire Country merchants will be prioritising Hot Water goods –including their sweet potatoes– and offering good-quality rice at modest prices in return, since they will not be able to sell to Lightning. Frost meanwhile has declared support for Lightning, so the trade border is the narrow boundary between Hot Water and Frost.

On land at least; Kita is sure that smugglers will already be making a killing selling Lightning produce to the smaller nations and minor islands along the northern coast and buying Fire goods to sell at ridiculously inflated prices. That is how this kind of thing tends to go after all.

The Hatake have taken the Hot Water daimyo's partisanship as an invitation to patrol the Frost border and turn away any merchants attempting to make the crossing without paying –Kita suspects they may well be doing some confiscation on the side, lawful of course since they are able to identify Lightning's various lesser-known produce due to once roaming the nation themselves– which they are reportedly taking great glee in doing. Especially when that involves delivering a beating to any shinobi guards; Hatake usually travel in ones and twos, so an entire five-man squad backed up by multiple summons all moving in smooth synchrony is both unprecedented and entirely overwhelming to anybody who hasn't seen them tripping over each-other in training getting to that point.

Madara is mostly smug that his determination to involve the Hatake in the joint Outguard training every shinobi resident in Konohagakure is required to participate in is bearing such positive fruit. He will not be travelling to the new 'front' despite there being an Uchiha force commissioned to assist the Hatake there –paid for by the Fire Daimyo to 'reciprocate the support of his fellow daimyo' and enforce the embargo– since politically this is still a very minor conflict. Izuna is therefore in charge and taking a mixed force of Uchiha and other Konohagakure shinobi, a range of variously bored young warriors managed by experienced veterans including Senju Tōka.

Izuna is also taking Senju Hashirama, on the basis that politically that looks good –reinforcing the Senju's vassal status– and it also keeps the man well away from the levers of power while ensuring the border stays reasonably pacified. Hashirama is much, much better at not killing his opponents these days –a decade and change of Outguard war games and sparring with a wide range of non-Senju has achieved _that_ much– so he will be able to non-lethally destroy their enemies' morale and speak eagerly of peace to a new audience.

Kita knows her husband is delighted at the prospect, although the face Izuna made when informed was sharingan-worthy. She is rather looking forward to how her husband's responsibilities will change in light of the coming crisis and how much work he is already delegating elsewhere; if things change on the front he may be called to battle at very short notice, but in the meantime he will have more time for her and their children.

Of course, most of the battle is taking place away from the border between Frost and Hot Water; the battle for public opinion, the battle to ensure no other countries start poking around or taking advantage of the clash between two of the largest Elemental Nations, either by setting themselves up as an intermediary for goods offered at slightly lower prices than the new taxes impose or in starting conflicts of their own. Then there are the little everyday battles, against prejudice, misinformation and pride, that are fought across the tea table alongside and against her fellow wives of clan heads and various other peers. Those battles are rather more challenging than usual right now, due to many seeing being chosen for the border as a privilege unduly bestowed on somebody else's sons, or protesting that the twelve-year-olds are _more_ than old enough to take missions this easy –as if _war_ could ever be _easy_ – and should be released from the Academy early in light of the present circumstances.

Tobirama's response to that _particular_ parental complaint had been to state that if they wished to remove their son from his tuition and care they were free to do so, but that without his assurance that their child had achieved the necessary level of competence in all the Academy's subjects, Madara would not accept said son's service in _any_ missions subject to his oversight and approval, regardless of whether said son was twelve or twenty. Which had put a very definite stop to parents trying to curtail their children's education in order to have another body on the battlefield earning money for their clan, but still; what were those adults _thinking_?

Probably that they'd been running missions at that age and come through it just fine. Never mind that if they think it's acceptable to send pre-teens into war zones they are _not_ 'fine' by any stretch of the definition. Forgetting that despite their having lived, a good half of their peers had _not_ survived being sent into war zones from a young age, including various siblings both older and younger. There is a reason most shinobi clans encourage their married members to have at least five children, and it isn't that birth control or abortificants are inaccessible; those plants grow all over. But when one in four children is likely to die of childhood illnesses –vaccines are few and far between outside various daimyo's cities unless you belong to a major clan with steady income and a strong medical tradition– and missions carry high risks of misclassification even for adults, out of a brood of five only one might make it to thirty, and by then would be raising their own children plus an orphaned niece or nephew on the side.

Konohagakure is blowing those statistics out of the water with its socialised healthcare, free education and insistence on not letting anybody younger than sixteen into the field –and Madara had been delighted when that final age adjustment went through just two years ago– but most of the variously new parents in her generation haven't quite caught up, which is why the average number of children per family is four. Some couples are just getting started, others have produced five and stopped, others are going for higher numbers –like Kita is privately hoping for– and others who would have avoided marrying entirely before the village are cautiously settling down and having maybe one child, or two at most.

When a lot of warriors say they 'don't want children' they _mean_ that they don't want a massive brood to stress over and worry about orphaning and leaving at the mercy of the clan, especially if they already have a dead sibling's children to provide for already. Smaller clans often do not have the resources to comfortably feed even that many mouths, especially after overall income had dropped due to adult deaths; then there are the expenses beyond food, and hand-me-down clothing can only be reused so many times before they're not fit for anything more than cleaning rags. In more settled circumstances however one child is not a massive stress and two are bearable, and being able to reliably _stop_ there and not have other relatives tut-tutting about 'difficulties' is proving a godsend for many. Not having to pay for basic education –neither the sensei's time nor the materials– and the access to reliable, effective and cheap healthcare has already eased the existing burdens significantly.

Among the Uchiha there are also many who remember fraught, deprived childhoods of their own from before the treaty and recognise that, while the clan _will_ care for any orphaned children, they do not _want_ that kind of upbringing for their own theoretical future children. Do not want to think of their own future sons and daughters knowing that nobody has time to raise them, forcing those same children to step up to do the work that _needs_ to be done regardless.

A lot of women warriors also don't want to retire permanently, but are prepared to take a year off and then leave the resulting child or children in the care of a non-Outguard parent, then maybe repeat the exercise again in a few years time. Kita suspects this is what Sakurajima is now doing; her youngest Torishima was born three years, a month and a day after Kōzushima. There was less time between her two eldest, of course, but that was due to Sakurajima taking a few years off to settle into her marriage properly, temporarily assuming a teaching position and helping Madara supervise the then-recently-expanded Outguard training program.

Kita expects the birth rate will slow down further as the village ages, the children of today growing into adults who do not want more than two or three children so they have time to enjoy the arts or pursue careers rather than focussing on populating their clans. Honestly, the Uchiha are quite big enough already, almost a town's worth all by themselves; not that it's stopping young couples from marrying, as witnessed by Minakata marrying Fumi, his sweetheart and Yamizo-sensei's eldest daughter, the moment they are both of age.

* * *

It's… strange, not accompanying Anija to the border between Hot Water and Frost. Tobirama has never _not_ accompanied his brother onto a potential battlefield like this before. However before today Hashirama has always been in charge –although he usually turned to Tobirama for the long-term strategic planning– so Tobirama is not actually overly concerned. Izuna is running this campaign with advice from Tōka, Nara Kazuki, Sarutobi Sasuke and the vaguely alarming Yamanaka twins, so Hashirama will be sufficiently buffered to not engage in unexpectedly dramatic risk-taking behaviour.

Tobirama is sure there will be plenty of _expected_ drama and risk-taking behaviour, but he is equally confident that Izuna's command team will have planned for most of it and planned around the possibility of the rest of it. In the meantime he gets to continue training up his growing students into capable shinobi, without any of the painful risks involved in exposing unprepared children to violence and warfare. Of course a number of his students _are_ disappointed they are not allowed to join in –in particular certain of those whose parents tried to remove them prematurely from the Academy– but he is sure that in time they will recognise that his actions there were in their best interests. Tobirama is sure that if Butsuma had recognised that war is no place for children then he would still _have_ three younger brothers, maybe even five older siblings rather than just two. His other older sibling being Senju Keika, who he's only recently learned is his sibling at all rather than a cousin, seeing as Butsuma had completely lost interest in raising her once she apprenticed herself to Ōka-ba as a medic.

Twelve-year-olds do not belong on battlefields. Eight-year-olds belong even _less_ , which is why it is a great relief that Tōka is leaving her son in his care. Tenshu is of course not pleased to be left with his 'baby cousins,' but since not even four-years-older Madoma is being allowed to go, he seems to be settling a bit.

Tsunama _is_ going, since he is sixteen now. Nearly seventeen, in fact. Looking into his nephew's bright golden eyes, Tobirama has to wonder when the boy got so _tall_. Or when he started growing his hair out; red-tinged gold is now pulled back in a short ponytail. Tsunama is specialising in negotiation and diplomacy, which is partly choice but partly due to not having anywhere near the required chakra reserves for battlefield ninjutsu –he can use it but lacks the stamina to do so continuously, so needs to be measured and tactical– and being somewhat indifferent with a sword. His hand-to-hand is very good, he's startlingly strong and he has a deft touch with the more subtle Earth jutsu, but Hashirama doesn't seem to see that his oldest son is no less capable than he was at that age.

Tsunama's no genius or prodigy, but he's solid and that's more important really. Tobirama always praises his precision and ingenuity whenever they spar, because most people are _not_ chakra powerhouses and Tsunama does not need to be 'exceptional' to be very good indeed.

Tokonoma-oji has mentioned exactly once that Tsunama takes a great deal after his grandmother, the late and much missed Senju Kaika, both in looks and in temperament. Tobirama can see that Tsunama takes strongly after Butsuma in elemental affinity and chakra reserves, but more after the Uzumaki in intelligence and learning style: he's is very bright, but it is a more emotional and physical intelligence. He thrives on experimenting and working with his body, but struggles to pay attention to anything he cannot immediately understand.

It is perhaps a shame that Tsunama lacks the Uzumaki's denser chakra, as their Adamantine Chains would make an excellent complement to his taijutsu. He has never voiced that however; there is no point in wishing after might-have-beens. Tsunama is a capable warrior for his age, very perceptive of others' feelings and motivations and has the makings of an excellent diplomat and future Clan Head. Tobirama has no concerns about the suitability for leadership of his brother's heir; in many ways his being so determinedly average is a great relief, as he lacks entirely the thoughtless assurance of success that makes Hashirama so intransigent.

Tsunama will be in a Squad with Kita's Benten, who is tutoring him in Outguard-style diplomacy and negotiation. Tobirama has every confidence that both of them will be just _fine_ , although he is quietly grateful that neither Toshiko nor Azami have chosen to pursue a shinobi career. Watching a child whose hands you held as they learned to walk lining up in armour to head out to what may be his death is never going to not be somewhat nerve-racking.

* * *

Madara had not been expecting the Hyūga to suddenly take an interest in the embargo five weeks after its inception, yet here he is, serving tea to Clan Head Hyūga Hisaaki and his brother Hikage as Hisaaki's wife Hinagiku sits politely to one side of the hall beside Kita, along with wide-eyed Takahara and rigidly demure Hyūga Hinaka, all clad in austere yet impeccable kimono. It's summer and very hot every day, even when it rains, which is why he has arranged for an Asa-cha, so they can enjoy the cool of the early morning. Relative cool, when compared to the heat of the day.

A tea ceremony requires modest clothing in subdued colours, so as not to detract from the event itself, so the Hyūga all are garbed in softly variegated shades of grey with sparse and subtly different bamboo prints rather than their usual white, and Kita is wearing her tensan silk with a rather complex woven duck pattern. Madara's own kimono is sepia with an abstract moth-wing print and Takahara's is indigo with a subtle fan pattern in the weave, an indication of his son and current heir being still a child and not old enough for a personal kimono in silk.

There is very little point in outfitting a child in a silk kimono when they are going to grow out of it in a year or two. There are several miniature silk kimono belonging to the various lineages, for children to wear on their Shichi-Go-San, but those are shared rather than belonging to any specific child. Even with the clan's greater numbers necessitating more of those tiny elaborate kimono being made, they are still shared and carefully passed down.

The kimono Takahara is wearing is an Amaterasu heirloom, for young heirs to wear in the event of being required to attend personal audiences with the daimyo alongside a parent. Madara has worn it, his brother has worn it and now his son is wearing it, although it has thankfully never been worn often enough for it to have conformed to any specific child's body.

It is only after the ritual of tea is complete and all those present have changed into as subtly formal a version of everyday clan garb as can be achieved at the height of summer that the delicate dance of politics begins, and the motives of the Hyūga clan begin slowly to take shape.

"The shinobi of Lightning Country have always been covetous, as I am sure Uchiha-sama is well aware," Hyūga Hikage says deferentially, tone soft and steady. "They look at our bloodlines and see a treasure they might yet acquire, if only they are cunning enough. Every generation the Hyūga lose kinsmen, and every generation we also see the Uchiha take vengeance for their own kinsmen lost. Those covetous shinobi are now united the aegis of the daimyo's Clanless brother, but their greed has in no way diminished; if anything it is now magnified and enhanced, as those who seek to steal success have found like-minded brethren."

It is true that Madara has personally carried out retribution against a bloodline thieves in Lightning, and it is also true that a large part of the Hatake being so very keen to assist in enforcing the embargo is that they were driven out of Lightning by the daimyo's bastard brother not taking 'no' for an answer and seeking to absorb their clan –specifically their children and summoning contracts– into his new shinobi village by force.

"The Hyūga Clan wishes to express solidarity with the Uchiha Clan and add their presence to the embargo," Hyūga Hisaaki says calmly, which only increases Madara's suspicions that the Hyūga have an agenda here. The Hyūga doing this –notably _without_ being remunerated by the daimyo– would be doing the Uchiha a _massive_ favour, and while they might be _implying_ that they are acting solely in their own best interests, that is simply not true. They could just have stayed at home, or gone to the daimyo's court and been supportive and smug there. Instead they are informing him of their intent to send thirty of their own warriors to the Frost border to assist Izuna, alongside a further twenty vassal warriors, to augment the hundred and fifty Konohagakure shinobi already there. That is a third again of Izuna's existing force, a _lot_ when the Hyūga's vassal village –called very poetically Shigegakure no Sato, the village hidden in the woods– is roughly a quarter of the size of Konohagakure in terms of population.

The Hyūga must be sending the very upper limit of what their clan can afford to spare, what with how close to the coast Shigegakure is and therefore vulnerable to pirate incursions out of Water. Not that such incursions are _common_ , but the increasing unrest means they become more likely. Then again, a shinobi settlement is a much harder target than a fishing village and pirates do not usually take risks if they can avoid them.

Hyūga Hisaaki is also no doubt sending his clan's best and brightest, to make the most favourable impression possible on the Hot Water daimyo as much as to offer Izuna significant assistance. And Madara _can't_ refuse without seeming horrendously arrogant and ungracious, because having Hyūga there would make patrolling the border so _much_ simpler, as squads could hang back at evenly spaced outposts and only head out when somebody actually tries to cross into Hot Water, as opposed to the current method of running irregular patrols and heavily trapping the entire area with surveillance seals.

"Hyūga-dono is most generous," he says, bowing, which is a concession in itself because the Hyūga are not quite his social equals and they know it. But his speaking as though they _are_ appeals to their pride without offending their dignity, and will make them slightly sweeter when they inevitably come to collect. "I will write to my brother with all speed, that he might be prepared for your warriors' arrival." Have accommodations ready and have made appropriate changes to deployment tactics, as well as taken some time to swear about the potential repercussions and written Madara a scathing letter on the subject to vent.

"It is always a pleasure to meet with Uchiha-sama," Hikage murmurs, bowing rather more deeply than his older brother does beside him. It is very sneaky of Hisaaki to make his brother his spokesman, but also terribly prideful as it means the Hyūga Head can avoid uttering the words 'Uchiha-sama' and thereby maintain the fiction that they are equal in ranking. Madara would be annoyed if it wasn't both amusing and a very blatant lever for him to manipulate the man with.

A lever the man's wife is well aware of, going by the almost-invisible ripples in Hyūga Hinagiku's social mask. She is not looking at him but at Kita, who is managing to project faintly smug awareness through her own bland smile; that's amusing and impressive. Either way, Madara is sure Hyūga Hisaaki will soon be the recipient of a subtle yet biting critique of the transparency of his ego, which for now will have to be enough.

He can always play the courtesy game for himself when the Hyūga come implying the Uchiha should 'show their gratitude,' with all the bitingly polite censure of how _ill-bred_ it is to solicit gifts, especially from those of higher rank. It might even be amusing.

* * *

It's September and tensions are running high. Not in the village specifically, but Kita's letters from Mao and her other contacts at court indicate that there have been a good number of messengers arriving from the Lightning Daimyo's court and that the Fire Daimyo has been very firm about his expectations concerning apologies and reparations due the Uchiha. The expectation of military escalation lurks between the lines; for the Lightning Daimyo to admit fault at this late date would be a humiliation, undermining his authority with his own court and paving the way for a coup such as happened in Earth a few years back at her husband's instigation. Kita agrees that the man is vanishingly unlikely to recant; things _will_ get worse before they get better and the continued tensions mean it is very likely that the conflict will drag out over the winter.

Kita has always disliked winter campaigns, mostly because of how they wear on Madara, but this one would be particularly dangerous since winters are much harsher in Hot Water and Frost. Izuna's letters indicate that the leaves are already mostly fallen from the trees along the border and there is occasionally frost on the ground in the mornings. The Hatake believe there will be snow soon –far earlier than it snows in Fire– and even if she repurposes her hot-box seals for sewing into padded undershirts, they will still lose people to varying sicknesses brought on by the bitter winter temperatures. Extra layers only go so far and are no protection against infection.

Right now the rice harvest is already underway, and by next month it will be complete. Tensions will then be at their height, as no rice will have travelled north of Hot Water and the Lightning Daimyo will be feeling the pressure. She knows that Izuna has already intercepted several squads of Lightning shinobi trying to sneak across the border, presumably to steal rice. If so, that is evidence that they are already feeling the pinch, be it of hunger or the tightening of their daimyo's purse-strings.

It is only 'presumably' because they refused to speak of their missions and Izuna did not care enough to genjutsu the details out of them; instead the squads were split and the shinobi detained in the new temporary prison camps that Minakata has been complaining about having to run. Well, organise; actual running has been delegated to various experienced and respected individuals, each of whom has somebody decently capable in Police Sealing assisting them and a small staff to oversee food, laundry and other daily activities. They'll be ransomed back in due course, although she's not sure by whom or how high those ransoms will be set. That's Minakata's business, seeing as he's responsible for the camps.

It's nice to have Madara at home for it all and also for Hashirama to _not_ be in Konohagakure, taking up a small but persistent percentage of her husband's time. Instead she is managing to spend time during the day with her husband while their children are at their lessons, and with Tobirama in the evenings after he has finished his duties at the Academy. Yes, there's a lot to do and plan for, but there is also time enough to rest in.

Yori is unexpectedly pregnant again; she hadn't been using E's contraception seal, but after this she might well decide to. It's been nearly nine years since Kōki was born, after all, so Yori had believed herself past having more children. Not that this one is unwelcome, but Yori has had many pointed things to say about timing and her husband's absence through yet _another_ pregnancy, seeing as he's out on the Frost border with Izuna.

The baby is due in February; Kita has consoled Yori with the fact that Hikaku will likely be home again well before then, but her friend is still huffy. Then again, the harking back to Yori's first pregnancy –and the tension and uncertainty of the time preceding and immediately following the establishment of the treaty with the Senju– can hardly be pleasant.

Yori's other children are all doing well though. Tokimi is talking enthusiastically about wanting to join the Police when she turns fourteen next year, Sachimi has already left shinobi training in favour of a medical apprenticeship –following in her mother's footsteps– and Kōki is really enjoying his first year of shinobi training and making lots of friends. Not that he wasn't already inseparable from Mitama, Hijiri's Nōtori and Tateshina's Biei, but now he has friends in other clans as well. Friends he is a bit more cautious about inviting home than his fellow Uchiha, but Kōki is a little shy like that. He's a very loving boy, so he's rightly cautious of getting hurt by people who don't understand how deeply he commits. He balances Mitama very well, seeing as her second son loves just as deeply but seems inclined to give his heart away to everyone who so much as smiles in his general direction; it's a little nerve-racking at times.

Shirakami and Adatara are both six right now, which will last until her youngest son's birthday in mid-November, and Adatara is enjoying being 'the same age as' her big brother just as much as she does every year. Shirakami is being pouty about it, as usual, but he'll settle after his birthday just like always. In fact this year will be even more exciting for him, as Madara will be starting him on Amaterasu lineage studies this winter: primarily the mnemonic side, as Shirakami's reading and calligraphy is not yet good enough to start learning from the clan scrolls.

Adatara will also be starting her reading and writing lessons this winter, although she can already recognise certain characters from her sewing lessons. She's got neat and nimble stitches now and is surprisingly quick with seams; Kita wonders if this delight and pride is how her Mama felt, back when she was little and learning the family craft.

Sukumo is nearly eleven and loving her shinobi classes, especially genjutsu practice, because she is sufficiently ahead of her peers there that she gets to skip the basic identification and shaping lectures in favour of exclusive tutoring alongside another six children her age. One of those six is Kurama Sekiran, the Kurama Heir, so Kita is finally getting to know Tomi-san a little. Not much –Kurama Tomi also has a three-year-old son so makes a lot of excuses– but some. She is getting to know Sekiran rather more, because he is extremely enthusiastic about illusions and really enjoys competing with Sukumo. He also insists Sukumo _has_ to be his friend because she has 'cloud' in her name like the Kurama all do, which is amusing and sweet.

Although she did have to nip in the bud Sekiran's eagerness to marry Sukumo once they were both older; Uchiha don't marry out. Ever. Knowing that to marry Sukumo would mean no longer being a Kurama had rather cooled Sekiran's enthusiasm there, but the children are still good friends which is the important part.

"Haha?"

Kita glances up from her embroidery –Toshi and Azami are now seventeen and are both in the village at the moment, so she has measured them and is making their coat linings– to smile at her youngest. "Yes, Adatara-chan?"

"Haha, Sugi has a little brother," Sugi is her sister Naka's youngest girl, "and so do Aino and Makoto." Aino is Hijiri's second-youngest, just as Makoto is Kanmuri's second-youngest. "Can _I_ have a little brother?"

"Why do you want a little brother, Adatara-chan?" Kita knows for a fact that Kanmuri had been hoping for a daughter when Tamaki was born, so there might yet be another child born there. Kagami is already the oldest of four, but he wears the responsibility very well for a twelve-year-old.

Adatara pouts. "I want to be Nee-chan!"

"But what if God gave you a little sister instead?" Kita does not believe in any of the thousands of kami the Uchiha follow, or at least does not believe they have power over her circumstances. They might well _exist_ , but they are not divine as she personally defines the word. Her children are all raised to respect the clan traditions and know all the stories, but they don't truly worship either the kami or their ancestors. Partly because Madara has long since abandoned his own faith in those same kami, so never speaks against Kita's beliefs when she explains them to the children, which she is well aware are extremely unusual. Nobody _anywhere_ in this life is monotheistic except her.

Adatara considers this. "I'd still be Nee-chan," she decides magnanimously, "so a little sister is fine too. I want to be Nee-chan, Haha!"

"Well then you should pray and be patient; babies are very complicated, so they take a lot of time and care for God to make," Kita tells her daughter easily.

"Tokimi says parents make babies," Adatara counters suspiciously.

"Parents can try," Kita assures her daughter with a smile, "but to get a proper baby God has to bless their work, or else the baby never gets a soul."

"And dies," Adatara finishes for herself matter-of-factly.

"And dies," Kita agrees. Miscarriage and infant death are an unfortunate part of life; Hijiri and Naka-mochi lost a daughter in between Aino and Aso, a nameless little darling who didn't even last a week after being born. Despite all the medical advances of the Senju and Uchiha clans combined it just happens sometimes, even when the baby is born to term.

Adatara nods decisively. "I'm going to go pray, Haha," she announces. "You and Chichi keep trying." She dashes off into the house.

Kita only _just_ manages to hold in her giggles until her daughter is out of earshot. She has to put her embroidery down too, so she doesn't accidentally stab herself while flopped over on the engawa wheezing with laughter.

* * *

Tobirama is sitting in the main receiving room of Kita's home, showing an attentive Yukino how to shape hiragana as around them the older children –including Izuna's two– all play scroll games, work on hobbies or pursue crafts, when one of the Homeguard sentries stumbles into the genkan and shoves the doors open:

"Madara-sama! A messenger from the Hyūga! Shigegakure has fallen!"

Madara was already standing as the shinobi entered the building; a firm gesture has Kita on her feet and Takahara and Sukumo scrambling to theirs, games rolled up and pieces pocketed so they can carry the loom into the dining room while their mother steers the younger children ahead of them. Tobirama sets his brush down on the stand and gets to his feet to carry his writing desk out of the room as well, Yukino already up and scurrying after her brother.

"Come to the Outguard Headquarters once you've tidied up, Tobirama," Madara says over his shoulder as he pulls on his coat and dons his sandals. "Kisokoma, have Yori prepare medical teams." Yori is pregnant so definitely won't be coming, but she is till senior medic so the best person to make the arrangements regarding personnel, supplies and logistics.

"At once, Madara-sama!"

Well, if he's invited he should attend. But first he wants to change; unlike Madara's kimono, his comfortable indoor clothing is not of sufficient quality for receiving official messengers in.

Changing takes scant minutes –Kita generously takes over Yukino's writing lesson– and then Tobirama is heading across to the Headquarters in his own quasi-Uchiha coat. It's a windy night, fine rain thrown in his face with every gust, and he's glad for its warmth.

In the Headquarters the messenger, a raw-faced teenager with the Utsugi look, is slumped on a stool, slurping a bowl of soup cradled in shaking hands as Uchiha Satomi – _Satoshi_ , they are in warrior dress– wraps a blanket around their shoulders. In the middle of the room Madara and several other senior Outguard are poring over a set of maps covering the large strategy table. Barely a word is being spoken, but the chakra swirling in the air reveals the genjutsu they're all using to keep the meeting moving at speed.

Tobirama walks up to the table, sits on one of the stools –he is not an Uchiha and cannot process so much information so easily– and meets the eyes of Nagi standing opposite. Instantly the genjutsu drags him in; an indeterminate but probably chronologically short amount of time later he has most of the details and starts offering specifics of non-Uchiha in the village who would be willing to help at no notice, who of those up at the Frost border should be redirected south and who to replace those people with.

It's dizzying work, a fast-moving blizzard of images and impressions punctuated by vivid instances of detailed memory complete with sound and scent. There's barely time to _think_ at all; Tobirama's distantly grateful for having had practice at this, because if this was his first time joining an Uchiha strategy genjutsu he'd already be curled on the floor with a splitting headache. As it is, most of what's keeping him on track is Madara's looming presence in the illusion, chakra guiding the shape of the meeting of minds and sharp-edged intellect inexorably assembling all the offered details into a structured whole.

That whole gleams in Tobirama's mind for an instant, every last facet briefly and blindingly clear, then the genjutsu collapses and the Outguard scatter to their tasks, leaving Tobirama to breathe carefully with eyes firmly closed and Madara to roll up the maps and put them away.

"I'll pack for the journey north," Tobirama manages, pressing the heels of his palms to his eyelids. That's the plan; Lightning will no doubt attack once they realise Hashirama has been recalled from the border, so he needs to be there to coordinate with Izuna and lead those heavy combat specialists not being taken east.

Madara grunts acknowledgement. "Going to talk to Mito," he adds; "Satoshi, put our guest up in the diplomatic quarters, seals down." Meaning inactive; the messenger will need their chakra accessible to recover from their cross-country run as swiftly as possible.

"Yes, Madara-sama."

Tobirama lurches to his feet, rubs his eyes one last time and strides back out into the misty rain; he's got time to explain the situation to his children before leaving and let Kita know that her husband probably won't be back for a while.

* * *

The Hyūga need them to run as fast as they can, even if it means leaving half their forces behind on the road. Pirates out of Water Country are a force to be feared –especially those daring and powerful enough to take on a coalition of strong shinobi clans– and if they don't get there _quickly_ they won't be able to rescue those taken hostage before they're dragged out of Fire Country altogether and become almost impossible to find. Hatake and Inuzuka are all excellent scent trackers, but that's not much use across ocean.

Zaō is rousing the halls shared by young single Outguard warriors and those village shinobi currently rotating through training, Satoshi has the messenger in hand, Eniwa will be waking Inemi and the rest of the clan's intelligencers, Oshiki is down in the village alerting the mission offices so that secondary forces can be sent after those being immediately dispatched both north- and south-east, Nagi will already be halfway through requisitioning supplies from Kiyoshi, focusing on defensive seals and temporary shelters, and Yori will be organising the medics and ensuring they are well-stocked with appropriate supplies.

Madara reaches the front gate of the Senju Clan's Hall in a blur of shunshin, pauses and walks in, letting the various minor alarm seals sound and alert those inside that he is coming up the front path. Mito's security is fairly benign so long as a visitor does not attempt to shunshin directly into clan grounds; guests need to open the gate and walk up the front path the normal way, shedding their shoes in the genkan and waiting for the front door to be opened for them. To attempt otherwise is to court swift detention and potentially a messy demise; there have been several assassination attempts on Hashirama over the years, but since the first two very messy instances of outsiders falling foul of Mito's home security, none of them have tried to catch the man at home.

He has every respect for Mito's home security; he's sure Kita's done something similar, but no assassins have come after him at home just yet so he's not entirely sure what protections she has put in place. No assassins have targeted his children yet either, which he is grateful for.

Taking off his sandals, he puts on a pair of guest slippers and straightens up as the front door opens and Mito waves him inside. "I take it this is to do with the sudden commotion at the mission offices?"

Madara nods, stepping over the threshold. "Pirates have taken Shigegakure," he says shortly. "We will likely have to chase them right out of Fire."

Mito nods sharply, leading the way down the hall. "I will accompany you then," she says matter-of-factly. "Chasing them to the coast will not be enough; we will have to pursue all the way back to their homre territory in order to rescue all those captured. Water has a persistent slavery problem."

Madara knows that; he'd hoped it _wouldn't_ come to that, but Mito is the expert here and he will bow to her experience. "I'll be leaving with an advance guard within the hour; Uchiha Oshiki will be leading the main force at dawn tomorrow while Tobirama runs north with reinforcements so we don't leave the border exposed when Hashirama and Sarutobi Sasuke bring half their forces south." That message is already sent, although Hashirama is unlikely to meet him on the battlefield before noon tomorrow; there are several mountain ranges between the Frost border and Shigegakure.

Mito frowns, eyes flicking as she thinks rapidly. "I need to speak to Keika and Hattōma; please excuse me."

Three-quarters of an hour later Madara is in full heavy armour, umbrella bag slung across his back as he faces his strike force. He has fifteen Outguard, three ino-shika-chō teams, eight Senju, two Shiranui who have assured him they can keep up with a clan pace and seven Inuzuka. Everybody has trained together before, which is a mercy. He also has twenty medics and five fūinjutsu apprentices who are going to lag a bit, but that's fine since they need to stay well behind the front line anyway.

"Organise yourselves into heavy assault squads and pick squad leaders," he orders them, "then line up to run." Outguard running order is leader at the front, mentor at the rear with other squad members in between, and everybody here knows who they work best with.

The ino-shika-chō teams instantly pick up both Shiranui, three of his Outguard and a Senju; everybody else quickly shuffles themselves into semi-mixed squads. His line-up of leaders therefore consists of Akimichi Chōmu, Akimichi Chitsuru, Yamanaka Inomi and Senju Tanka along with Sakurajima, Kagutsuchi and Takao. Quick reflexes, deep chakra reserves and strong tactical instincts make for good squad leaders; the cunning thinkers are better placed in the mentor position, where they have time to strategise properly.

"Good. None of you are to even _try_ to keep up with me," he orders flatly; "that'll be Hashirama's job when he arrives. Leaders, lead; mentors" –a line-up which includes all three Nara and one Senju beside Zaō, Nagi and his Yatagarasu second cousin Enichi– "coordinate and keep an eye on the medics. We're running straight into the fight; leave the casualties and civilians to our rearguard. Questions?"

"No, Madara-sama," the back row choruses as the leaders all shake their heads.

"Then we leave." Madara turns, nods to the medics –who do not need him to tell them their business– and takes off out of the village's east gate at a dead run. Behind him the leaders also start moving, only a little slower than he is so that the squads can pace themselves and arrive decently fresh; the Inuzuka dogs fall out around the v-shaped formation, flanking their human partners.

They will all be with the Hyūga by mid-morning; hopefully there will still be someone left to rescue by then.

* * *

Madara meets the first refugee group –all young teenagers and small children– shortly after crossing the daimyo's road north to Hot Water. He stops for them –for information as much as to reassure them that help is on the way– and little Hideko-chan, who is in charge by virtue of being Main House, thirteen and determinedly calm, provides him with additional details of the assault on her home as her eight teenage and pre-teen lieutenants –Hyūga and not, all armed– look around twitchily and the other older children rest their legs, feed the infants and toddlers they are carrying with the rations Madara led his introduction with and cry silently.

They were sent on ahead, Hideko-chan explains quietly, because they all have some shinobi training, so can run faster than the civilian adults and carry the babies. There's another larger party behind them, a few handfuls of Branch Clan shinobi protecting adults both civilian and injured with children too young to run fast but too big to carry, and could Uchiha-sama please stop if he sees them.

Madara agrees, reassures them that additional warriors and medics are not long behind him and additional forces are coming from the north, digs some boiled sugar sweets and low-grade chakra supplements out of the previously-forgotten recesses of his umbrella bag to improve their energy levels and then takes off at a dead run south-east, following the trail; the pirates _will_ have split up to chase the refugees despite the best efforts of the warriors trying to delay them, so they _will_ have caught up with those fleeing by now.

He tries not to think about how earnest little Hinaka-hime was not among the children he has just left; she's only fourteen, but that's old enough for the battlefield by the old traditions and the Hyūga are _very_ traditional indeed. She may not even still be _alive._

Then again, her two younger brothers weren't there either –likely too young to run fast enough– so she might have stayed behind to protect them. The little Heiress takes her responsibilities very seriously indeed.

He hears the battle ahead of him less than an hour later and draws his gunbai, leaning more heavily on his chakra and calling up a fire jutsu as he throws himself up into the air –read the battlefield before hitting it– and then falling into the fray like a meteorite.

There's absolutely nobody familiar and everybody is screaming; Madara targets everyone not in recognisable Fire Country Clan garb and not civilian, making occasional exceptions for Water-looking older teenagers –the teeth on two of them are distinctive– standing over small children. Throwing his chakra and Intent around means that most of those dubious cases are frozen and shaking like aspens, but seeing as the little ones are clinging _to_ their legs or shirts they can wait. It's the obvious pirates who need dealing with and quickly.

Within ten minutes of his arrival there's not a single pirate still among the living, Madara has tucked his presence away again and all the dubious cases have been confirmed as Hyūga vassals by the older Branch House members present –Madara hadn't realised their various blacksmith families were originally from Water but he probably should have guessed– and the bodies are being separated into two piles, pirates to be burned at once and the fallen to wrap up for funerals later.

Hinaka-hime is not among the dead, but she is very badly injured. Madara can't be sure she'll survive until the medics make it this far south, but he has done his best with his very limited healing skills and the Nohara in the group are doing what they can for all the injured. Six-year-old Haruki is holding tightly onto his big sister's hand and sniffling; Hinaka is doing her best to comfort her little brother, but she's hampered by her injuries –to her back, legs, other arm and head, neat but significant slashes he's thankfully managed to stem the bleeding from– and the emotional devastation of nine-year-old Higure being among the dead.

What can Madara _say_ to a little girl who has just lost a younger sibling right before her eyes? Who saw him cornered, saw him fall and couldn't get away from her own attacker in time to do more than ensure his body was not immediately desecrated?

"Your brother wouldn't want you to follow him into the grave, Hinaka-hime," he manages eventually. "I know because my little brothers wouldn't have wanted that for me either. So we go on, because they never got the chance. So when we finally do meet them, we can tell them all that they have missed, and all we have achieved in their name. And you still have a brother who needs your care."

"Thank you, Uchiha-sama," Hinaka rasps distantly. "The Hyūga are most grateful for your assistance and intervention." She swallows hard, bandaged limbs shaking. "Please do not delay on this one's behalf."

"You're very brave, hime-chan," he tells her –she's barely older than Takahara and her pain breaks his heart– before hurrying on. Hopefully the vanguard will have reached the first party of children by now, so they'll know that they're safe.

His progress is a little slower now, picking off more pirates who have given chase and intervening in fights to cut down Water shinobi being held off by various Hyūga Branch House members and vassals. Those warriors either dash on to catch up with the main refugee group or turn to follow after him back towards the main battlefield, although none of them can keep up with even the reduced pace he is setting.

It isn't important though. Their morale is improved for his intervention and that's what matters most.

Madara's heart still hurts, but he tucks the pain away for later. For when this war is over and he is home again with his wife. For now he has to be the deadly warrior, the charismatic leader, the confident strategist, the terror of the battlefield.

He has to _win_.

* * *

The those pirates still fighting the ragged remnants of the Hyūga forces in the ruins of Shigegakure scatter like chaff as Madara charges into their midst; he lets them. Now is not the time to pursue them; now is the time to confer with those still living, assure them of the safety of those sent away and determine who is missing, both among the living and the dead, so that they know who and what to look for. Easily half the pirates will already be on their way back to the coast with loot and prisoners; those lingering were merely the greedy, the sadistic and the battle-hungry. Hinaka-chan's injuries were meant to cripple her so she could more easily be carried off.

It is an hour before the rest of the vanguard arrives and sets up camp, hours more before the healers arrive –two-thirds of them anyway; the rest remained with the refugees– but by then Madara has a rough idea of what took place and how many are missing rather than dead.

Hyūga Hisaaki is injured, but will recover. His wife Hinagiku is missing, his brother Hikage is dead, and his sister-in-law has been crippled in one leg and blinded. Hinagiku, Kita's friend and long-time correspondent, taken by pirates. Being able to reassure Hisaaki that his daughter and younger son are still alive is definitely very cold comfort, but the Hyūga Clan Head is visibly grateful even for that little.

Then Hashirama arrives, which gives Madara the leeway to leave the ongoing organisation of the camp and the wounded to Nagi and Zaō and set off in pursuit alongside his friend and a few other warriors. The plan is to swing wide of the pirates' trail and cut them off from the coast, hopefully so as to destroy their boats and strand them in Fire. Or, failing that, delay their progress so as to increase their chances of rescuing the prisoners.

Two days later they have achieved mixed successes there: additional forces have arrived from both the north –headed by Sarutobi Sasuke– and the west –led by Oshiki and Mito– and he and Hashirama have located and destroyed three pirate landing points and recovered the associated surviving prisoners with their small strike force. However interrogation reveals there were five groups, so about two-fifths of those taken are still missing and need to be chased down. Five separate pirate groups with shinobi training all banding together is practically unprecedented, even if the remaining two appear to be from the same clan; the unrest in Water has clearly boiled over beyond anybody's expectations if that _many_ are willing to risk the ire of Fire's shinobi clans on top of what they face in their own country.

Madara, recognising his lack of expertise in matters of marine warfare, defers to Mito at the strategy table. Hashirama is somewhat bemused to have his wife providing guidance in the field, but goes along with it with minimal objections. Mito identifies their shinobi prisoners from the missing groups as belonging to the Momochi Clan, provides a brief outline of their general skill-set, territories both current and former and details of how they have been affected by the recent internecine warfare in Water –sufficiently severely to risk raiding in Fire– and the best way to go about recovering those taken. Who include Hyūga Hinagiku, although Mito has made it clear that, while it is likely the woman still lives, she is _very_ unlikely to still have her eyes. She tactfully does not speak of the other abuses and indignities that Hinagiku and her fellow prisoners are likely to suffer.

The Hyūga need a more consistent sealing policy to protect their bloodline; what they currently have very clearly does not work. The many, many discarded bodies of Branch House members Madara and Hashirama came across while tracking and back-tracking up and down the coast however indicate that a good half of the Hyūga's sealing policy seems to include killing at a distance those abducted, destroying their eyes rather than recovering them alive, which is despicable behaviour. Also deeply impractical: Hinagiku is now one of maybe four Hyūga still alive in captivity, as opposed to one of thirty or more, so she has fewer allies to assist in an escape. Assuming she's even capable of escape at this point; cutting tendons in the wrist means a hand cannot use their Gentle Fist and severing those behind the knees or at the ankle prevents walking, never mind running.

It is not his clan and not his business, but Madara can still disapprove in private if he chooses.

The most recent letter from Izuna indicates Lightning is taking advantage of the chaos in Fire to launch an assault on the Hot Water border, but his brother doesn't seem to think he and Tobirama will have any trouble holding them off, so Madara is refusing to worry about that. He has enough to be getting on with as it is.

At least Mito being here means the Uzumaki are willing to lend them boats and sailors to crew them as they chase after the Momochi.

* * *

It isn't that Tobirama had forgotten how chaotic, nerve-racking and utterly _miserable_ field warfare is; he'd just pushed it to the back of his mind and not thought about it, let time and peace dull the persistent numbing fear, the anxiety and dread of who would die today, who would be carried from the field and who would be screaming in agony, either from injuries or from the loss of loved ones. The bitter wintry chill makes deaths all the more likely, forcing his warriors to expend more chakra.

Worse is how his mind plays the numbers game, coldly counting who he can afford to lose, who should be reassigned and who gets to rest to be fresh for the next morning. At least in that he has Izuna shouldering half the burden.

"No, no!"

Madara's training program has worked wonders and everybody here is genuinely _good_ at collaborating on the battlefield, but people are still dying. It doesn't help that they're not actually _officially_ at war just yet, so are not permitted to follow the Lightning shinobi –who are all wearing identical white armour-weave jackets and headbands marked with a cloud design– back over the border into Frost. There are fewer deaths down in the valleys along the roads, where there are enough people to use the police seals and carry prisoners away from the front lines, but up in the mountains the choice is to kill or to die.

Certain Lightning shinobi are using the matter of war being yet undeclared to their advantage; Tobirama quickly joins Senju Higi in holding back Uchiha Yari from charging across the sluggish glacial stream that marks the border, keping her from slaughtering the two shinobi who just gutted and electrocuted Uchiha Nakano. Those shinobi, a duo of dark-skinned and well-muscled men, have paused alongside their fairer-skinned comrades to look back and taunt. Nobody is trying to steal the Uchiha's eyes anymore, but watching young, soft-spoken, clever Nakano frantically gasp his last on the barren scree as his squad desperately fail to stabilise him is not exactly an _improvement_.

" _Nakano_!"

Yari and Nakano are lovers. Were lovers, now. Tobirama feels the hair on the back of his neck rise as Yari screams, furious and wordless as mere yards away across the border the Lightning shinobi jeer crudely at her grief.

There's a gasp from the medic, who abruptly throws themselves forwards over the corpse as the crisp winter air around them _crackles._ Yari is still screaming, but her chakra is rising and–

Lightning strikes from icy clear skies, blindingly bright, deafeningly loud and far too close, and the chakra of the four surviving enemy shinobi across the valley is briefly tainted by terror and agony before snuffing out. The silence that follows as they all blink past the after-images, broken only by the hiss and sizzle of cooling stone and burning flesh, is distinctly oppressive.

The medic breaks it. "Yari, rest your eyes."

"Nakano," Yari whimpers, sagging back in Tobirama and Higi's grip, her chakra suddenly on the verge of depletion, blood dripping down her face like scarlet tears.

"He is avenged," the medic says firmly, chakra full of gentle determination as they raise a hand to press between Yari's eyes. "Rest."

Yari does not resist the genjutsu, falling instantly into deep sleep. The medic wipes the blood away and swiftly wraps a length of seal-stitched bandage around her closed eyes.

"Was that..?" Higi asks, voice hushed.

"It's been a while since Raiden walked the battlefield," Uchiha Sumeru says grimly, taking Yari from them and gently slinging the warrior over his shoulder, handing the medic an umbrella bag so Nakano's body can be loaded into it. "I'll get Yari and Nakano back to Izuna-sama, Tobirama-sama; Naka-tall, you're joining Tobirama-sama's squad for now."

Naka-tall nods tightly, falling in beside Higi as Inuzuka Nodo checks over his two massive hounds for injuries and Uchiha Urakura meticulously recoils his wire, sharingan flicking across the rocky glacial valley they have paused in. The fifth member of what was Nakano's squad, a shaking Kurama, gets to his feet and steps determinedly forwards despite his late leader's blood coating his arms almost to the elbow. "Tobirama-sama, should I do anything about the other bodies?"

Tobirama looks along the bleak mountainside at the torn and burned bodies of those they have slain, then across the border again at the charred corpses of Nakano's killers. "Leave them. No mortal can command the lightning," he says firmly, "so this was clearly _natural_. The timing and location were purely coincidental. Nothing to do with us." There was no chakra at _all_ in that lightning strike and not a hint of it lingers in the molten grounding lines painted across the stone, nothing but ferocious natural energy that is slowly dissipating. If _that_ is an Uchiha Mangekyō manifestation… well, he can at least ensure their enemies _never_ find out about it. "We are very high up and it's a dry day; these things happen."

It is a plausibly valid explanation, especially since Lightning jutsu do put a charge in the air when not perfectly controlled. He turns back to the Kurama. "Clear the bodies on this side of the border, cover your squad's retreat and if you and Nara-san" –he can't remember the medic's first name _either–_ "encounter another part-squad that needs reinforcements along the way back to the command post, join them. We'll run the rest of the patrol route alone." Otoki is hiding up the slope behind them, the leopard poised to carry a request for reinforcements or news of a fresh attack, so they will be fine to continue without another squad backing them up.

"Hai Tobirama-sama!"

Izuna was training up Nakano for leadership; in light of his loss, Tobirama cannot see Yari's sudden ascension to a higher level of her clan bloodline as anything but a tragedy. If this is what it takes for an Uchiha to gain Mangekyō, he now understands perfectly why Madara is so protective of those clansmen who have it: they are not the strongest on the battlefield but the most fragile, permanently scarred by devastating loss. Madara himself, Izuna and Kita included; they too deserve protection, for all he is not sure how long ago their losses were or how much they have recovered. Or indeed what exactly _was_ lost, especially in Kita's case.

He'll do what he can to help support them regardless.

* * *

In the delay between driving off the pirates and securing Uzumaki assistance, Madara joins in clearing rubble and digging out possessions from the ruins of Shigegakure. This turns into also digging out survivors, because it soon becomes clear that while all the settlement's younger shinobi clansmen had been evacuated along with the wounded and those with important non-combat skills –like the medics and smiths– a significant proportion of the civilians and non-clan inhabitants had been left behind. Most of the adults are dead if they haven't been stolen, but a decent number of children survived by virtue of having no detectable chakra to speak of and being able to fit into very small spaces.

When the Uzumaki delegation arrives, led by one of Mito's male cousins, Madara has eight children younger than seven who are occupying his –frankly unnecessarily large– private tent, sleeping in his bedroll during the night and making sure he doesn't get disturbed when he naps during the day. He's actually sleeping sat up against a tree most nights, but the children think he's staying up all night working –that was the only way he could persuade them to use his bed– so letting them guard his midday naps assures them they're being helpful and that he's taking care of himself.

Sakurajima of course knows _exactly_ what he's doing, but seeing as yesterday she brought the group a pair of kittens rescued from the ruins to coddle, he feels she's unlikely to tattle on him. Four of the children confessed this morning to having shinobi older siblings or cousins, so he's hoping some of those have survived. Three of them have that generically Water Country look, so they might be related to the teenagers he met on his way here, but the last one looks vaguely Sea Country –a difference in skin tone and eye-shape mostly– which is less helpful. That one is also all of three years old, so communication is frankly challenging.

The other four are two pairs of siblings with merchant and craftsman parents respectively, who if they are lucky are in fact dead and not being dragged across Water Country by the Momochi as slaves. Madara's sure suitable foster parents can be found back in Konoha if the children's extended families don't come and collect them before that.

"Madara-sama, letters from Konohagakure!"

Madara accepts the letter pouch from the runner and walks into the command tent, where Mito is presiding over who is going where with which captain. Hyūga Hisaaki seems a little displeased over not being included there, but the argument that he needs to lead his surviving warriors to Konohagakure to oversee the care of those and his clan and vassals who have made it that far is sound, so the Hyūga Head will simply have to live with the humiliation of his wife being rescued by outsiders.

Provided she is indeed still alive.

Opening the pouch, he hands over the scrolls addressed to Sarutobi Sasuke, Akimichi Chitsuru, Yamanaka Inomi and Nara Seishi, then opens the one addressed to him in his wife's hand.

A poem card flutters out; he catches it on reflex.

_Bonfires at sunset  
Chill breezes make me shiver;  
when will the heat return? _

Madara grins; that's actually impressively subtle for Kita. Apparently complaining about the weather, but actually an allusion to missing him. Specifically in bed; his wife is always vocally appreciative of his body heat as the seasons turn and the days shorten. He pockets it and turns his attention to the letter, which is entirely formal and full of details of heightened village security, various new Homeguard precautions and news of the Hyūga children's safe arrival and the associated housing arrangements.

There's another poem card tucked into the end of the scroll:

_Autumn moon kisses  
Ev'ry place your hands have been  
And will kiss again._

Well. That is _certainly_ an image that will keep him warm at night while out hunting pirates. Madara carefully tucks that one away too; the first one was relatively innocuous in comparison to this _particular_ offering.

If his wife is going to keep sending him erotic poetry in with the official updates he may have to buy a new poem-card box to keep them in. They're not exactly the kind of thing he can in good conscience leave lying around his tent for the children to puzzle over, after all.

* * *

It is October and the border with Frost has finally settled, mainly because it is now buried in deep snow, but Tobirama will be staying there even as Izuna and Hikaku return south. Partly because Izuna needs to be in Konohagkure to negotiate with the Hyūga, who have decided they'd rather stay in the village for the time being and resettle their ancestral lands later, once their clan and vassals have recovered a little from this blow, but also because somebody needs to negotiate with the daimyo and despite being Madara's wife, Kita's authority is not considered sufficient. Culturally speaking, she married authority rather than being born to it, and headship of a clan lineage means little to those beyond the clan.

Which is unfortunate, but it's not like she can change that. Izuna as younger brother to the Outguard Head is the culturally acceptable substitute; it's also not the first time her husband has delegated such things to his younger sibling, so he has the benefit of familiarity as well. Hikaku is needed to arrange missions and manage intelligence, because missions requests have not stopped just because there's an almost-war on.

Madara is currently in Water Country, chasing down the Momochi Clan in an attempt to recover hostages and potentially stolen Hyūga eyes as well, accompanied by a strike force including Hyūga and vassal warriors, a few Hatake, several Utsugi, a good number of Uchiha and Senju and the various Uzumaki who own the boats they're travelling in. Hijiri's crows are still managing to deliver letters –as are Mito's slugs– so Kita is writing twice a week to keep her husband up to date with clan and village goings-on. She's also writing to Tobirama, although there she's focussing on his children and what mischief his students are getting up to in his absence.

Madara is also getting poetry; Tobirama is just getting ink paintings of the leopards he's delivering letters with –the big cats are delighted by the attention– and sketches of Makuma and Yukino doing various things.

Kita is fairly sure she's pregnant again, but it's not even two months yet so it's not _certain_. If her husband still isn't home when December begins she'll write to him with the news, but not before then.

Hopefully he _will_ be home by then. She doesn't particularly want to see the New Year without him.

Taking up her brush, Kita continues the letter to her husband. Maybe she should include a new padded undershirt with this one; in his last letter Madara mentioned winter storms and she does not want him to get sick.

 _Red leaves on the wind_ – _  
In sunlight, I almost feel  
your eyes' warm caress _

* * *

_Frost-touched persimmons;  
Sweetness dripping from my lips  
wishing to be kissed_

_The sun rises late;  
winter crawls between my sheets.  
I dream of fire _

It's late November and they have found most of the stolen Hyūga and vassals –including the blinded and crippled but still defiant Hinagiku– but there are a few children still missing so Madara, Hashirama and Mito are continuing the search with two squads and a handful of Hyūga vassals despite the increasingly dangerous winter storms. Seeing as Mito is nominally in charge of the last two boats, the Uzumaki have let them continue without insisting on keeping a few other clansmen on board; Madara has learned a _lot_ about boats over the past weeks.

He's also accumulating quite a bit of poetry, seeing as every time one of Hijiri's crows finds them in between the storms there is always something for him from his wife. Letters, new padded winter undershirts heavily stitched with all manner of seals, more weapons' polish and a dozen long reels of battle-wire –every Uchiha on board praises her thoughtfulness that day– and a large, elaborate seal tag that looks like an eye, which when fastened to the ship's mast somehow persuades the next flurry of storms to flow _around_ them. Kita thankfully included two copies, one for each boat.

They're still tossed on the waves, of course, but at least they're no longer at risk of losing the masts entirely or being blown overboard.

_Eating fresh oysters  
slick and salty on the tongue  
I hunger for more _

Madara knows that everybody on board is well aware of his ever-growing collection of suggestive haiku; there's not much privacy to be had on a fishing boat and even with umbrella bags to store things in, he still had to buy a box on one of their stops to make sure the poems all stayed together and didn't get mixed up with anything else. There's also no way of avoiding a nosy audience when new ones arrive; he's pretty sure half the vassals have got an eyeful at some point, as they're more curious and tend to lurk behind him when he opens the letters and parcels.

There've been multiple conversations about music and poetry –it passes the time when they're crammed all together under tarpaulins in miserable weather– and the Kamizuki swordswoman mentioned court pillow books once, which seems to imply that Water has a rather more established erotic literature tradition than Fire does, so _maybe_ it's artistic interest rather than prurient curiosity, but Madara's still not going to share anything without his wife's express and explicit agreement. Her poetry to him is private and will remain so.

_Walking on a dream  
you met me; your eager touch  
warmed my awakening _

They'd have found the last of the Momochi sooner, except they've been either complete geniuses or suicidally idiotic and are moving around among the tiny islands closest to the Sanbi, which is making searching intensely difficult. They have to sail very wide of the bijuu, both so as not to provoke it and to avoid the ever-growing coral reef that has sprung up in its general vicinity, and there are so many islands to search –and so many almost-interchangeable fishing boats to pick from– that Madara's almost tempted to just start torching every island they pass with Amaterasu and see who comes screaming out from the shrubbery. It would mean they wouldn't need to regularly retrace old ground in miserably icy weather either.

Madara's not done that once yet, but he's still _tempted_. Then as November slides into December another crow arrives, this time bearing a single poem card–

_Leaves crunch underfoot  
Beneath my heart, life flutters  
awaiting the spring _

–and he runs out of patience.

* * *

Mito reluctantly agrees that burning down entire islands is no worse than anybody local would do, and that said locals probably expected him to lead with that _anyway_ so nobody will fault him for it. Madara therefore spends the next three days breathing a whole lot of fire –not Amaterasu, that affects his mind so is a last resort– and feels deeply vindicated when the scorched-earth policy very quickly starts turning up leads. By the end of the week not only have they recovered all but two of those still missing and are only three eyes short, but they have a solid lead on those outfitted with said stolen eyes and a local clan –the Terumī, who have very clearly intermarried with the Uzumaki both recently and repeatedly– have agreed to acquire said missing children _for_ him so long as he promises not to burn down _their_ islands. Yes the weather is bitter and miserable but they're not _that_ desperate to keep warm.

Madara has no trouble at all with such a bargain, Hashirama is delighted to have achieved progress through negotiation rather than violence and they are free to chase down the eye-thieves. Madara privately appreciates that they will be able to see him coming; it won't do them any good when they have nowhere to run to.

That last handful of Momochi are clearly determined to make their deaths as annoying for him as possible, as they finally turn at bay on a smallish volcanic island –all low vegetation with a suspiciously smoking crater at its domed peak– that is _within sight_ of the Sanbi. Evidently hoping that they will tread softly around the bijū and hesitate to pull out the larger scale attacks, but Madara is quite frankly sick of all this chasing and has decided that the best way to ensure he never has to do it again is to make an _example_ of them. Even if that then means having to then run for his life from the mountain-sized chakra beast currently sunbathing a scant mile away. Madara's confident in his ability to run away very fast; bijū are not something you fight. Well, not if you intend to live longer than maybe half an hour, and that's only if you manage to avoid being eaten, crushed or blasted and die of chakra poisoning instead.

"Sail away," Madara orders after alighting from the boat, squinting in the face of the driving wind.

"Madara, I'm coming too!" He doesn't care to spend the next hour arguing with Hashirama, so he nods.

"As will I," Mito decides with the aplomb of a queen. "Kamizuki, you have the helm; make sure there's at least one island between you and here before the fight starts. We'll signal when we want to be collected."

"Captain," Kamizuki Masago drawls, waving her fingertips in the general vicinity of her temple as Mito leaps down onto the grey waves and walks briskly ashore. Madara, already setting fire to the dismantled but insufficiently concealed boat hauled well above the shoreline, doesn't argue with her either. He's seen what she can do with the chakra chains that are her bloodline and her fūinjutsu is _vicious_. So long as she doesn't try to finish off his opponents for him they're not going to have any problems.

"Plan, Madara?" Hashirama asks, watching him seriously.

"You chase them towards me with your trees and I crush them with Susano-o," Madara says cheerfully. It's a completely unnecessary and rampantly excessive response, but it will be visible for miles around even through the low-lying mist and make his feelings on this whole business abundantly clear.

Hashirama nods, not arguing for mercy this time. Then again, having seen the eyeless, trembling Hyūga and the stick-thin children with their tendons cut and steel bands around their throats, Madara's not too surprised that outrage has outpaced idealism this time.

"Give me a moment!" his friend chirps, setting off around the beach at a jog and rapidly vanishing from sight into the freezing fog clinging to the ground. Madara walks a little further up the slope, rolling his shoulders and flexing his chakra as Mito wisely sets off back onto the waves and away around the island in the opposite direction to her husband, putting a good distance between them but staying firmly in his field of vision. Smart; if he can see her he can avoid hitting her.

Then the ground underfoot begins to rumble and the bushes shudder, terrified swearing and the creaking rush of fast-growing foliage drifting towards them on the sea breeze.

Madara waits until he knows they can see him, see him standing all alone knee-deep in the fading mist by the ashy remnants of their boat, hands hanging empty at his sides, waits until he can _see_ them _decide_ to take their chances with him rather than the roaring rising canopy of forest nipping at their heels, and then he calls Susano-o into being and snatches up the two front-runners in gigantic bony indigo hands, crushing the byakugan implanted in their respective left eye sockets with thumbs like hammers, bones cracking loudly in his grip.

"I really don't appreciate people who think eyeballs are something they can _steal_ ," he purrs, tossing both men back into the sea to drown or not. He's inflicted considerable brain damage on top of shattering their skulls, so they're either dead or dying and he may as well speed it along a bit.

The last seven pirates –all looking a bit more worn and thin that they did at the beginning of this chase– draw well-maintained swords in a variety of shapes and sizes and spread out defensively. Madara takes the opportunity to demonstrate that he has more than two arms at his disposal; crushing ribcages and breaking spines is really deplorably easy when he outclasses his opponents several times over in chakra reserves.

Three left; one of them decides to go out with a bang, sheathes his sword and starts frantically making handseals; Madara ignores him in favour of the one who summons a bird and tries to fly away.

Pathetic. He _does_ know how to use a bow and Susano-o is quite charmingly versatile. Two arrows like ships' masts pierce both bird and summoner as they rise above the Sanbi, sending them plummeting to bounce bonelessly off the bijū's armoured back.

Then the tidal wave of the water jutsu washes over him to no effect, and after allowing its creator half a second to gape in shock Madara ends him too, stabbing him through his stolen eye with another massive chakra arrow and turning his head to pulp. The last pirate attempted to run back along the beach and fell foul of Mito's barriers and chains; he too is exceptionally dead.

Out to sea the Sanbi shivers, then roars its outrage.

"Oh dear," Hashirama says, emerging from the newborn trees now towering above the misty shoreline.

Madara drops Susano-o like a hot potato, turns and runs for his life out across the dark water, Mito right behind him. Hashirama catches up barely a second later, but the furious bellows do not abate in the slightest. The Sanbi evidently did _not_ appreciate having a pair of corpses dropped on it, although it cannot _possibly_ have been injured by them. Not through that shell.

"Advice?" Madara asks, glancing briefly at Mito as they bounce over a sudden wave, the sullen clouds above swirling ominously.

"Lead it _away_ from the boats." And, goes unspoken, the crew. Madara changes course slightly, heading for a different and rather wider island, then has to jump as an even larger wave rises abruptly from the water beneath his feet and tries to suck him down.

He _needs_ to get off the water. Unfortunately the island they're headed for may not be tall enough and he can't fly.

There is another wailing roar, shaking the air and forcing the waves higher. Madara risks a backward glance as dark, roiling water is sucked back from the pebbled beach and he lands awkwardly on loose stones; the grey, craggy and kappa-like bijū is wreathed in mist which is lit with its corrosively vivid chakra, bright and toxic to Madara's sharingan.

The mist is moving more quickly than the beast itself; Madara dashes up to the crest of the island –definitely not high enough– keeping Mito and Hashirama in his peripheral vision and lines up a wind jutsu. He can't directly oppose the bijū, but blowing the mist off course sideways would buy them some time; time to get to another, higher island.

The sea picks this moment to come pouring back, the tsunami rising to eye level and above; Madara leaps above the wave crest, lets the wind jutsu fly, keeps himself airborne for another few seconds with his gunbai –he's grateful for those seals Kita added– and then lands again as the wave subsides.

Hashirama's well-anchored wooden bunker unfurls like a flower, revealing both his comrades.

"We need to run again," Madara says immediately. "There's too much chakra in that mist and it's spreading too widely for me to keep blowing it off course."

Hashirama glances back, nods and takes off, Mito at his heels. Madara joins them in fleeing, heading for a more distant but rather taller volcanic island.

The mist rolls over them seconds later, turning the world white and chakra-streaked; Madara has to duck a chakra chain aimed at his centre of mass a split-second later.

Genjutsu. He's unaffected of course, but he can't exactly abandon Mito. Or Hashirama, for that matter.

Mito first; it'll be easier to get through to Hashirama if he has help. Madara picks his moment, darks in close, grabs her wrist and forces his chakra under her skin, disrupting the illusion.

Mito blinks, serrated golden chain-ends stilling scant inches from his face. "Madara?"

"Genjutsu," he tells her shortly, taking care to exude more chakra and deliberately build up an aura to further disrupt the mist around them. "Get on," he waves vaguely at his shoulder; Mito will be able to contribute more if she's not constantly having to disrupt the illusion. He's pretty sure there's also a chemical element, but Fire chakra can burn that off before it gets into his blood.

Practical as ever, Mito nods sharply and climbs onto his back, her chains coiling lightly around his abdomen, shoulders and upper arms for balance. Madara bounces lightly on the suspiciously still surface of the water –where has the bijū gone and what is it planning– pulls his aura in a little around his passenger and sets off towards the unmistakeable commotion that is Hashirama, half his attention on the water beneath his sandals.

It really is _far_ too still…


	13. Chapter 13

Tobirama sits cross-legged on the roof-ridge of the command post, looking out across the deep snow with three leopards and six fellow warriors perched around him. The snowfall this year is reportedly earlier and heavier than usual, which has had the effect of drastically reducing the number of incursions across the border. Lightning apparently has enough problems of its own without adding ongoing skirmishing to the mix. However the situation is not _resolved_ , so Tobirama is still here.

The heavy snow makes cabin fever something of an issue, hence their all sitting on the roof rather than indoors. They've all taught themselves to walk on snow by now –well everybody who couldn't do it already– but there's not really anywhere to go _to_.

His leopards are in high demand, as are the other Hatake summons; everybody wants to hear news from family back in Konoha. This isolation was not planned, but they are managing decently well thus far.

Patrols are still running, but more infrequently and Tobirama is mainly sending out Hatake with mixed squads so that everybody gets to exercise and not feel cooped up. He can feel the entire border from here, picked out by strategically placed hiraishin markers, so he will have enough time to raise the alarm if a force of any size starts moving towards them. It's been quiet though and is likely to stay quiet until early spring at least.

Now, if only he didn't have the niggling feeling that his brother is getting into trouble without him…

* * *

Three islands on from that first tsunami and Madara has lost both his sandals to that _wretched_ coral, Hashirama has abandoned his sword somewhere and Mito's battle kimono is badly torn, but the blasted bijū is _still_ chasing them and it's starting to get dark. Hashirama's perched on a wooden pillar meditating, Madara's prowling irritably back and forth trying to think his way out of this situation and Mito is drawing out an additional layer of barrier seals to protect their little mountaintop from the bijū determined to squash them flat. The Sanbi is both persistent and _very_ determined.

On cue, the entire island shakes.

The coral is climbing relentlessly up the outside of Mito's barrier; Madara hasn't tried Amaterasu on it yet, wanting to preserve his strength, but at this rate he might not have a choice.

The plan –such as it is– is for Hashirama to accumulate enough Sage energy to be able to tangle the bijū in tree roots, then Mito will use seals to obscure their escape. Madara will unfortunately be the one doing the actual escaping, since Hashirama needs to stay still in order to accumulate Sage energy so will have to be carried. Normally he'd carry himself on a prehensile bit of wood, but that doesn't really work over open ocean. Hashirama's apparently never tried to make a boat before, so they're not going to waste time they don't have experimenting when Madara can just carry his friend.

Madara is hoping very much to _not_ have to resort to shooting the bijū in the eye with a Susano-o arrow; he has a feeling that would inspire a grudge against his entire _clan_ for the rest of _eternity_ and he'd rather avoid that if possible. This chase has confirmed that the Sanbi is smart enough not to fall for clone techniques and to attack strategically, which honestly puts it above a good number of previous human opponents. It also suggests that the other bijū may be equally aware, which has unsettling implications; the Ichibi has always been vocal but it's generally nonsense, which implies it may actually be insane rather than just a halfway-capable mimic.

That implied awareness is why Madara is reluctant to use his sharingan to attempt hypnosis. He doesn't even know if the Sanbi would be affected by his bloodline like that, and even if it _is_ –unlikely– then once the effect wears off there's _again_ nothing to stop the bijū from hunting him down or holding a grudge against all Uchiha until the end of time. Which he'd much rather avoid.

The towering bijū spits a black orb of concentrated Yin chakra at them; it hits Mito's layered barriers and explodes with a crackling roar, vaporising a wide section of coral, driving back the sea and making the island shake again, more violently this time. The outer barrier buckles and shatters; Madara recovers his balance and prepares for the inevitable.

Hashirama's chakra abruptly shifts; Madara glances up to see his friend's face painted with those odd markings that are usually only visible to Mangekyō. Then there are oversized trees sprouting vigorously outside the coral-buttressed barrier, wrapping around the bijū's limbs and crawling up over the top of its shell. Madara waits with baited breath for the gigantic kappa to scream and fracture the straining wood–

The bijū shudders, whines and subsides, its jaw hitting the beach with a subdued thud as its limbs give way.

Madara blinks, briefly activating Mangekyō for additional clarity as the sea rushes back, lapping at the sides of the Sanbi's craggy shell and rebounding off Mito's hastily-raised inner barrier before settling back below the beach. Is that _it_? "Hashirama?" He asks suspiciously.

His friend is staring at the bound bijū, an unholy blend of enlightenment and delighted zealotry shining in his eyes. "Madara, it was _easy_ ," he breathes, hopping off his pillar and bouncing down the slope towards the edge of the barrier; Madara hurriedly chases after him. His friend turns to beam at him, facial markings still clear. "Madara, I could do this to _all_ the bijū; think how many lives we'd save!"

Hashirama has gone _off his head_. Madara's knows there's a chakra absorption component to that tree-binding jutsu; has the bijū chakra done this?! Toxic chakra eroding what little sense his friend has ever had?!

"No more farming villages being trampled! No more having to abandon civilian caravans crossing Wind Country! No more ships being randomly sunk!"

"And what do you think people are going to do to _us_ when they realise that _our village_ can bind the bijū?" Madara demands harshly, fingers creaking on his gunbai as fury abruptly swallows him whole. How can his friend be _so_ _ **blind**_ _?!_ The consequences would fall on–

"But that's the _point_ Madara! If people know we did this they _won't_ challenge us!"

Madara hits Hashirama across the face with his gunbai in a fit of pure pique and then everything happens much too fast.

Too fast, and yet he can see every move almost before it begins. He _knows_ Hashirama, knows him _completely_ but Hashirama doesn't know him anywhere _near_ as well. Hashirama's never _needed_ to know him that well; Madara's friend has always been a step ahead of him on the battlefield.

He's not fighting for his life here, or even for his clan; Madara is fighting for his _children_ , for their safety and their _future_ –

Hashirama is _still_ ahead of him–

Fire–jump–twist–wind– _duck_ –strike–block–burn–bend–kick–fire– _back_ –throw–swing–strike–

Hashirama violently drags his shoulder out of its socket, eyes cold and kunai raised–

–chokes, a glowing, serrated blade a palm-span wide protruding from the middle of his chest.

"Mito?" Madara gapes, stumbling back and staring as Hashirama lets go, dropping the kunai and crumpling to his knees, gasping. If Mito just _pulls out_ that chain he'll regenerate, but Mito _isn't_.

Mito isn't looking at Madara; she's looking at her husband, right into his wide, betrayed eyes, the golden chakra chain attached to the blade through his back vanishing into her still-intact sleeve. "He's right, you know," she says quietly. Composedly. Resignedly. Unhappily. "But they wouldn't go after you. They'd go after our children. _My_ children."

Hashirama's chakra convulses desperately as he fumbles at the glowing blade point, lips bloody, then topples sideways onto the scree and scrubby vegetation.

His chakra slowly and gradually flickers out.

Completely.

Madara lets Mito set his shoulder back into its socket. He watches Mito take down all the barrier seals. He lets Mito take her husband's necklace, then when Mito asks, uses Amaterasu on Ha– on the dead body until there's nothing left. He then uses Amaterasu on the twisting tree roots chaining the bijū, which has watched them steadily throughout.

The bijū does not kill them whe its bonds disintegrate into dust. It simply leaves. Madara cannot decide whether he is disappointed or relieved.

He lets Mito tow him across the water out of the chakra-laced fog bank and all the way back to the boat.

Hashirama's dead.

Gone.

_Forever._

* * *

A rare winter thunderstorm blows them all the way to Uzushio, whipped up by the bijū's fury. Madara spends endless hours on deck in the driving sleet helping with the ropes and sails, only curling up in the fish-smelling hold for a few hours when his little cousin Shironushi, now a terribly earnest medic, all but drags him there and _orders_ him to sleep.

He does not dream. He is grateful.

The Terumī had already delivered the last of the missing children by the time he and Mito returned, so there is nothing to keep them in Mizu any longer. When the storm finally blows itself out and they reach Uzushio's port, gently guided in between the whirlpools by Mito's steady hand, there is a crow waiting for him.

It has a poem.

_A frozen garden  
Restless koi under the ice  
longing for the sun _

"Kamizuki," Madara rasps.

"Hai, Uchiha-sama?" the swordswoman replies easily.

"A blank poem card."

"I have some, Uchiha-sama," the snake-faced Mizuchi to the swordswoman's left says easily, fishing in their pack. "Here you are." They hold out a set like a fan.

They're brightly garish in typical Water Country fashion, vivid dyes and strong contrasts in the paper pulp creating reversible patterns. Madara picks a red and white one, absently coaxes Maebure onto his pauldron with half the still-warm dumpling he'd been handed when Mito took over steering –he's not really hungry– and wanders off to find a section of wall he can sit on to write his wife a suitable reply.

_Frost covers the fields  
yet a crane out of season  
I return to you _

He needs to see her. Needs to hold her in his arms and touch for himself the swell of her abdomen where a new child is growing. Needs to feel her steady fireside presence and hear her gentle voice.

"Madara-nii?"

He glances up and manages to smile at Shironushi as Maebure accepts the card and takes flight. "Shiro-kun." The crow will reach his wife well before he does, even if he starts running now.

"The Uzumaki have offered to let us stay, but," the seventeen-year-old hesitates, posture and expression making it clear that he sincerely doubts Madara is interested in doing so.

"I will be heading for Konohagakure at once," he says flatly. "Others may delay their return if they so choose." What else is there… "Tell Mito I will be sending Izuna personally to relieve Tobirama." Some things should _not_ be found out by letter. Not that Madara has any idea _how_ to tell Tobirama _any_ of this. The words knot in his throat, tangling around his lungs like battle-wire even as he tries to practice them. Hashirama's death will never fade from his mind –sharingan sharp and unforgivingly detailed– but…

He'll just tell Izuna that they clashed with the Sanbi. That's plenty. Mito can clarify later, or not.

Madara has no idea what kind of laws the Senju have about… what just happened… or what they consider to count as mitigating factors, and anyway doesn't care to get tangled up in them. Mito is seeking the support of the Uzumaki, so she clearly believes she can weather the outcome with their help. He will leave the matter entirely in her hands. He did not ask her to do… _that_ … so her actions were entirely her own, though he understands her motives all too well.

Shironushi scrapes one sandal on the packed limestone of the quay. "I miss home."

Madara misses his friend. The boy with the stupid haircut by the riverside, grieving his little brother and dreaming of peace. The man who arrived too early at the treaty proceedings out of eagerness, the idiot who fussed over his bonsai and cried over broken sakura trees.

"I will not keep anyone from accompanying me." Madara knows he'll outpace them instantly once they land in Fire and that his warriors all know it too, leaving them to stumble home in the middle of winter while carrying the starving and crippled, but they won't begrudge him his haste.

He deliberately does not think why. It is a mercy, perhaps, that he already _has_ Mangekyō.

* * *

Tobirama opens his eyes and stares blankly at the timbered roof above him until he realises that what woke him was the kiln-bright flare of Madara's chakra at the very edge of his senses. Getting out of bed, he pulls on his layers and armour, adds his coat and climbs out of the window into the tiny snow-walled windbreak sheltering it –created specifically so they can change the bunkroom's air without letting in the freezing north wind– and leaps lightly up onto the roof.

It is early in the morning, but the winter days are longer this far north and he can see false dawn along the horizon. Setting himself cross-legged on the snow, Tobirama settles in to meditate. Unlike his brother he is not a Sage, but his summons have taught him enough of natural energy that can he can use it to enhance his sensing skills. He cannot _touch_ it –would honestly never dare to even _try_ – but with his mind calm and chakra open, he can feel it well enough and sense the echoes moving through it.

It is indeed Madara; travelling alone before the dawn, running in a straight line from the port the Senju use to visit Uzushio and heading towards Konohagakure, almost due west. He's unmistakeable, although Tobirama is likely never going to know why his perception of the Outguard Head's chakra involves a persistent but not unpleasant aroma of cloves. It's not like the Uchiha use cloves to keep their laundry free of biting insects or even burn the spice for incense; they rarely even use it in their cookery. And yet, to his mind's nose Madara moves in a cloud of that warm, piquant scent, subtle and restrained when at large in the village but almost eye-wateringly fierce when focused in your direction in a fight.

Kita is not so different in that respect; the Uchiha have no _kyara_ at all and Tobirama's only real encounter with the incense-wood was on a mission to Sea Country in his teens, delivering a package to their daimyo containing a single scrap no longer than his thumb and earning every last coin of his initially-believed-excessive pay twice over, and yet to his chakra sense Kita is suffused with that unmistakeable scent. Complex yet soothing, it fills the air around her and her habitual haunts are easily discerned. It lingers in the clothing of her children, on the works of her hands and in the hair of his own son and daughter whenever he collects them from her stewardship, subtle but distinct.

To his physical nose Kita's scent is more reminiscent of beautyberry leaves, lemongrass and cedar, reflecting how the Uchiha store their clothing to protect them from moths and repel other biting insects. She also smells like rosewater, herbal soap and hair oil, and most of all like herself, that distinctive feminine scent that can't really be effectively described to anyone with a nose less sensitive than his own. His leopards assure him that in the past months her physical scent has changed to signal her pregnancy –Tobirama suspects he was told before Kita even noticed that for herself– but can divine no trace of agarwood, which is confirmation that the association between her chakra and the highest grade of the most costly incense-wood is entirely in his own mind.

His leopards _do_ know what agarwood smells like, as in a heavily-protected section of the Senju tree plantation there are stands of aloe trees, where those vassals responsible for them carefully nurture the mould that causes the wood to produce its signature resin and cautiously inject it into specific parts of selected trees.

It is a long, slow and deeply imprecise process, but the clan has recently been able to sell a small quantity of cultivated _kōboku_ , as the lower-grade agarwood is called, for a considerable sum.

Madara however should not be travelling alone. He took a good number of squads with him and –according to Izuna's regular letters– two of those squads are yet to return. Those squads who _did_ return with other recovered hostages and various Hyūga vassals mentioned that a number of other vassals –Izuna's terminology indicated more or less a squad's worth– had also remained to aid in the hunt. Mito and Anija are also still out there.

Further distant movement catches his attention as dawn crawls ever closer: a cluster of familiar fire-tinged chakra, punctuated by more watery flavours and following directly in Madara's wake, if rather more sedately. Ten Uchiha –one of them little Shironushi, who is not so little these days and a capable and level-headed medic– four who are unfamiliar to him but running in formation with the Outguard nonetheless, and several far smaller and more inconsistent pinpricks of energy, who are either children, civilians or injured. Possibly all three, considering the rants Izuna has sent him in with the official correspondence on the state of those recovered from the pirates before now. Everybody knows that pirates are cruel, but witnessing that cruelty in person makes it so much more real and abhorrent. The letters are honestly bad enough.

Anija is not among them, but then again neither is Mito and their having come from an Uzu port suggests that his sister-in-law may have chosen to spend a while longer with her family, which his brother was evidently powerless to prevent. It's not so surprising that he'd choose to stay with her, just as it's not a surprise that Madara would choose to hurry home. Kita must be more than three months pregnant by now, so it is to be expected that she will have informed her husband of that development.

Some of the Hatake have been sneaking across the border and down into the nearest of Frost's towns, seeking news and information from Lightning. What details they have brought back imply that the daimyo's court is not enjoying the austerity his pride and greed have brought about, so it is likely that come spring there will be reparations made and the embargo will end. Tobirama hopes that will be the case; he misses his children, even with Tōnari eagerly carrying letters back and forth to them every few days, and hearing about his students' many achievements is not the same as seeing them for himself.

Konoha is his home now, and he misses it.

* * *

Kita is expecting her husband's return, and he does indeed return in good time, but when he gets in she is grateful for her foresight in having all the children sleep over with Tateshina's brood. Because something is very badly wrong.

"Husband?" she asks gently as she relieves him of his coat and umbrella bag, hanging both in the bedroom across from hers –technically her husband's, but he only keeps his armour and other Outguard gear in there– and leading him into the dining room and the iori.

He's still dusty, sweaty and faintly bespattered from the long run, but he looks like he desperately needs a cup of tea before she even suggests bathing.

"Wife… I," he looks exhausted, not physically but the bruises under his eyes are darker than she's ever seen them and he seems to be struggling to look _at_ her rather than _through_ her.

"I made tea," she offers.

"Tea," he echoes, gratefully seizing the distraction and settling by the hearth. Kita pours tea into their husband-and-wife cups, passes him the slightly larger one and settles in to drink. Her husband will tell her what's on his mind once he's settled and drunk something. She knows he will.

His chakra aches like an open wound; somebody has died. Someone precious and close; Kita hopes it wasn't Shironushi. That might kill Ohabari-oba as well, to lose her youngest. He lives in the village, so she can't sense him from here to check.

Her husband drinks his tea. Her husband drinks another cup of tea when she pours it for him. Her husband stares into his empty cup like it holds the secrets of the universe and starts, almost dropping it, when she moves around the iori to lean into him.

"Kita?"

She takes the cup off him and sets it down beside her own, husband-and-wife cups for a husband and his wife, bought over twenty years ago as a promise and a gift. "I'm here, husband."

His eyes drop and he cautiously takes her hand in both of his, playing with her fingers. He's not really looked at her properly yet, not even once. He's looked her in the eye –briefly– and looked at her hands and the tea, but not at _her_. Not at the changes in her body, the gentle but definitely perceptible curve of her abdomen through her kimono where their new child-to-be is growing.

Something is very, very wrong.

"Perhaps my husband would like to bathe, before we go to bed," she murmurs, toying with a strand of his tangled hair.

Madara blinks blankly. "The children?" He manages.

"With Tateshina," Kita tells him. "I thought you might like some time to rest before being ambushed on all sides by children all wanting you to listen to _them_ first."

Her husband snorts, fond and wry. "Wise wife." A pause. "I should bathe."

"Well, then let us change and adjourn to the bath house, husband."

The bath helps, in that her husband actually looks at her while helping her shower and his eyes go all soft as he lightly runs the wash cloth over her baby bump. He also lets her wash his hair –it needs all the help it can get after months of neglect in Water– and by the time they're sitting in the pool afterwards his shoulders have loosened and his chakra is not quite so tightly knotted in his chest.

Kita does not ask her questions then, or even after they have got out of the pool and put their yukata back on; she waits until they're braided each-other's hair for bed and changed into warm winter nemaki. Then, before blowing out the lantern, she asks:

"Husband, do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

Madara's composure shatters like brittle porcelain; she barely manages to slow his fall enough to keep him from cracking his head on the polished boards. Face buried in her shoulder, her husband keens like the world is ending.

Kita embraces him as tightly as she can and rocks, his tears soaking into her collar as the desperate keening turns to thick-throated ugly sobs. She pulls the blankets off the futon and roughly wraps the lot around them both, still rocking soothingly until the sobs fade to steady weeping and finally to shivers and sniffing.

She has no idea how much time has passed. It's not like it matters right now.

"I love you, husband," she confesses quietly to the top of his head; he trembles in her arms.

"We," her husband croaks, "there, beloved. Disturbed the Sanbi. Hashirama–" his voice cracks.

So that is who has died; Kita hugs him more tightly. "You are mourning your friend," she says softly. "You don't have to say anything else. I will miss him too." He was not _her_ friend, but he has been a constant presence in her life for a very long time and his absence will be uncomfortable. More so for the effect it will have on her loved ones than on her personally, but Hashirama had a caring heart despite his many faults and was always good-humoured.

Madara makes a small, miserable sound in his throat.

"Come to bed, husband," Kita coaxes gently, "and sleep. Rest. Hold me. It will all be less terrible in the morning, I promise." Mostly because her husband has cried himself out for now, so will need a while for all those emotions to build up again, but that still counts. Sleep also helps with processing, and if her husband has slept properly _once_ since his friend died she will eat her slippers.

Her husband chokes out a breathless chuckle. "Wonderful wife. I'll come to bed."

* * *

Tobirama keeps half an eye on Izuna's steady progress north-east with growing trepidation, most of his attention on supervising training exercises, hearing reports from the squads running the border and having his leopards spy on the nearest outposts of Lightning shinobi, who refer to their village as 'Kumogakure'. Which is Kita's idea of a funny joke –he will have to tell her about it– and also implies it's a good way north; probably somewhere in Lightning's steep, barren mountains.

There are very few things that would prompt Izuna to come north the moment Madara is back in the village and none of them are good. Some political trouble with the Water Daimyo over their pursuit of the Momochi, perhaps? That would explain why Mito is yet to leave Uzushio, if she is acting as proxy with Anija both as backup and to delay negotiations. After all, as a vassal to the Uchiha Anija can't _possibly_ negotiate on their behalf, but his presence does imply the Uchiha are taking matters seriously, so he makes a good proxy host. That most civilian nobility seems to find his brashness amusing and endearing helps; Tobirama _still_ can't understand that, but he's seen it too many times now to not take advantage when he can.

He's patiently teaching a group of off-duty shinobi how to twist a water jutsu so as to use snow as a base –it's a little counter-intuitive but very useful in these conditions– when Izuna finally arrives, long-heralded by the chakra-scent of fiery sparks, aniseed tree and moonlight. Only a Hatake would understand what he means by the scent of moonlight, but it _does_ have a scent just as sunlight does; sunlight scent changes depending on the time of day and year, but the changes to moonlight are more subtle and have more to do with the phase of the moon than the season or hour. The Inuzuka have good noses, but they lack the sensitivity to nature's subtleties that the Hatake have. Bored warriors from both clans competing for variously trivial stakes have proven that decisively, although the Inuzuka can claim sightly more sensitive hearing.

He's not quite sure why aniseed tree for Izuna, but Tobirama suspects it's to do with Izuna being his longstanding opponent on the battlefield as a child and his own subconscious association of the aromatic evergreen leaves with death. Aniseed tree has seed pods that look _exactly_ like star anise, but are deadly poison rather than a pleasant seasoning. They are also the favoured incense in the Senju family shrine, which is another part of why he tends to avoid sweets and foods flavoured with anise when possible; they inspire melancholy rather than delight.

"Tobirama," the snow-dusted Uchiha says, nodding politely before glancing over at his impromptu class.

"Higi, take over would you?" Tobirama requests, turning to his cousin watching on the sidelines; Higi nods –Tobirama taught this to him some time ago– and strides forwards as Tobirama retreats back towards his guest.

Izuna politely allows him to lead the way into the command post –currently deserted– and make a pot of tea.

"So what has happened to prompt your granting me the pleasure of your company?" Tobirama asks once the tea has been poured.

Izuna opens his mouth, pauses and grimaces. "Senju. Tobirama," he says, voice soft and tight. "Your brother is dead."

Tobirama freezes, taken utterly aback.

"He and Madara ran into a bijū in Water Country and, well," Izuna tugs restlessly on his ponytail, "you get the picture. Madara told me; he sent me to tell you in person, said you shouldn't find out from a letter–"

Tobirama rises abruptly to his feet, walks out of the command post and leaps up onto the roof, closing his eyes and reaching as far as he can. Anija _can't_ be dead, surely Anija–

– _ran into a bijū_ , memory echoes Izuna's voice back to him as he finds only the steady speckles of trees bearing his brother's chakra, mostly clustered in and around Konoha, and when has Anija _ever_ known to leave well enough alone? When has he _ever_ fled a fight? Madara knows when to run –Tobirama's seen and sensed him do it from both sides of the field– but Anija? Anija only leaves if his enemies do first. He only _ever_ left when Father ordered him to, and when Father died that stopped happening altogether.

His brother _is_ dead, Tobirama abruptly realises against a haze of aniseed tree and genuine concern wafting up to him from ground level. He knows it in his bones. Anija isn't here anymore. He's gone.

Anija's _gone_.

* * *

Madara is glad he is home for his wife's birthday. She is utterly delighted by his presence and he can't keep himself from responding to that. All their beautiful children are no less delighted by his abrupt return, and there is the added joy of both Azami _and_ Toshi being at home this winter. They're both seventeen now; he's not quite sure where the time went.

Tobirama is back in Konohagakure as well, but he's mostly staying in the Senju compound. Madara seesaws between feeling guilty about not being able to tell Tobirama what _actually_ happened to his brother –he hasn't even been able to tell _Kita_ that– and the miserable emptiness of his friend's absence. Mito is yet to return from Uzushio, but she's sent a letter promising to be back in Konoha shortly after New Year, so Madara is firmly postponing all Hashirama-related things until then.

There is going to have to be a funeral. Or a memorial. _Something_ , anyway. But Mito and Tobirama will be organising it, not him.

Making a fuss of his pregnant wife feels like a betrayal, but Madara isn't letting that stop him.

* * *

The message from the daimyo inviting Madara to court to discuss the end of the embargo and what would satisfy the Uchiha in terms of restitution arrives on the heels of the naming of Hikaku and Yori's new son, little Kichō-kun. Madara can't avoid making the trip, but Kita being pregnant _can_ and he is keen to spare her the indignity of travelling when so encumbered.

Madara looks at his options, looks at the Senju and makes a few difficult –yet cowardly– choices. Mito clearly _still_ hasn't said a word to either her eldest son or her brother-in-law –although Madara suspects that certain other Senju _do_ know– and he still can't find the right words to tell Kita. They stick unpleasantly in his throat every time he looks his wife in the eye. So he writes north to his brother, then asks that Tobirama keep an eye on the border in his new role as Senju Head while he and Izuna head to court with Tsunama and a suitable entourage. Being only seventeen, the future Senju Head will have the leeway to fumble a little and not be expected to make any meaningful contributions, but this introduction will also provide an opportunity for Izuna to coach the teenager in court protocol and politics in a reasonably low-stakes setting. Tsunama will be introduced, but his role will be simply to observe, seeing as he is too young still to participate in the proceedings. He is the Senju Heir, not their Head, so cannot act on behalf of his clan. Not yet.

Tsunama needs to be able to hold his own there eventually, seeing as he will be heavily involved in negotiating the Senju clan's various trading ventures once he's a bit older. Showing the court that the teenager has Madara's support will go a long way to dissuading the vultures from circling too closely, and Tobirama as an absent yet invocable threat will do wonders.

He knows his wife knows something's wrong. He just can't find the words to tell her what it is. What does he _say_?

* * *

Things are not well with her husband. Kita can see it, because Madara has never once hidden anything from her in his life and therefore has no practice. She however _has_ had practice and has successfully hidden all manner of things from him –mostly concerning Uchiha Tajima and his various underhanded attempts to manipulate her into doing his bidding– so she has experimented a little and has managed to discern that whatever it is that is making her husband feel so unspeakably guilty involves Senju Mito.

Kita does not believe for a moment that her husband has been unfaithful. However she is still going to find out what is going on, because her husband is _miserable_ and she won't have it.

So once Madara and Izuna have set off for the capital with Senju Tsunama and a suitable entourage for the negotiation of terms with Lightning, Kita invites Mito and her younger children up to the Uchiha compound. Then, once the children are happily occupied playing in the snow well out of earshot, she makes tea for her friend.

Once tea is served, she springs the trap.

"Mito, dear friend, would you tell me what it is exactly that lies between yourself and my husband?" she asks, knowing exactly how it sounds.

"Kita!" Mito is suitably shocked.

"I know you, Mito," Kita says simply, keeping her eyes steady and her face placid. "I know my husband would never even _dream_ of looking to his late best friend's wife, but I also know _you._ And I know my husband would blame himself a thousand times over before ever laying the responsibility for such a thing at your feet." It is even true, in every last possible layer of implication.

Then she waits. Mito is an experienced and dangerous opponent in the field of words and politics, but Kita cut her teeth on Uchiha Tajima and Mito will never match him in paranoia.

"Kita, surely you don't think?" Mito beseeches shakily, eyes wide and face white.

She does not answer. Silence is always a far more pressing encourager of honesty than any amount of honeyed words.

Mito trembles under her patient scrutiny. Kita is not left waiting for many more minutes.

"Kita, it was Hashirama, he… he bound the Sanbi, you have to understand, he _subdued_ it. He was talking about subduing _all_ of the bijū and your husband was so angry with him, because _he_ at least recognised that such a thing would put a target on all our backs," Mito finally pours out, words swift and fervently pleading. "And they fought and Madara was _losing_ , Kita, and I knew that it wouldn't just be Konohagakure and our children who would pay for such a thing; no, it would be _my_ family, _all_ of my family, because after binding the bijū my husband would turn to _me_ for a way to _keep_ them bound, and _that_ would be the death of my clan. And I _could not_ stand by and let that happen, Kita, not when I had a chance to prevent it." She takes a sharp breath. "And so, while my husband was distracted with trying to disable your husband, I killed him. Then I had Madara burn the body, and told the crew when we returned that it had been the Sanbi who slew Senju Hashirama."

Kita picks up her tea and sips it. Unfortunately she cannot say she is _surprised_. Well, she is maybe a _little_ surprised that Mito killed Hashirama; Mito may be fairly reserved, but she did love her husband deeply. Even though she has previously confided in Kita that she also thought he was a bit dense. Sweet, effusive and passionate, but somewhat impulsive and inconsiderate at times.

However she is _not_ surprised by Hashirama's thoughtlessness in deciding to subdue and chain a force of nature simply because he _can_. Never mind that she is mostly sure the bijū are in fact _people_. As much people as summons are, certainly.

"You will write to my husband," she says quietly, "and inform him that you have spoken to me on this matter, so that he might set his concerns aside."

"Of course I will Kita," Mito says instantly. "You have my deepest apologies; I should have spoken to you on the subject sooner."

"You were grieving," Kita says mildly. "You are still grieving. You have a son to guide. I cannot fault your priorities." She is perhaps being a little vindictive, but Madara has been suffering Mito's silence and she has never had much sympathy for those who injure her husband's heart.

"Yes, you can," Mito says abruptly, "and you do." She narrows her eyes, awareness flooding in. "That was very sneaky of you."

Kita smiles faintly. "Tajima-sama taught me much by example," she murmurs mildly. "I was an indifferent student, but I do my best."

"I will admit that I deserved that," Mito mutters wryly, "but please do not do it again."

"It has never been necessary before now, and I trust it will not be again," Kita replies placidly.

"So noted," Mito agrees, looking ruefully down at her own tea.

"So how is Tamayama getting on?" Kita asks, wanting to move the conversation onward. She has the information she wanted, so there is no need to allow the tension to linger. "He seems very lively, and I hear Menka is very much enjoying her lessons at the Academy."

Mito accepts the peace offering that is Kita's willingness to hear all about the doings of her friend's children and the afternoon proceeds comfortably from there. After Mito and her children have left and her own children are all put to bed, Kita writes a letter of her own to her husband, assuring him that she cares for him and that her awareness of what exactly passed between him and Hashirama before his friend's death changes nothing between them. He is still her husband and she loves him no less for his inability to speak of the truth of his friend's demise to her.

She does not say that she hopes he will be able to speak of it now, but he will read that between the lines regardless.

* * *

Mito and Kita's letters reach him while he is still settling in at the capital, which does help quiet Madara's grief a little –he can continue to allow his pain to gradually die down rather than stirring it up again explaining the specifics– and enables him to focus more on the negotiations to hand.

Said negotiations are being made with himself present as the 'offended party', the Fire Daimyo personally moderating since Madara did indeed turn to him rather than pursue his own vengeance, and a high-ranking member of the Lightning Daimyo's household acting as his lord's representative, with shinobi bodyguards as well as a civilian entourage.

Madara has a feeling one of those 'bodyguards' is either a trusted aide to the Lightning Daimyo's shinobi half-brother –and possibly to the daimyo as well– or else somehow communicating with the man at a distance, based on the way the representative regularly changes focus first thing in the morning and occasionally picks on specific previously-ignored issues right after lunch. It's too inconsistent with the rest of his behaviour to be a personal style, which implies communication with a third party. It also implies that negotiations will be vastly more annoying –and long– than anticipated.

Not that Madara rightly cares. He has recused himself from personally negotiating on the basis that he and his clan's children were those directly harmed by this assault –Madoma and Yukino are being kept out of things for simplicity's sake– so Izuna is doing the talking. This gives Madara more time to watch the representative and his entourage, reading their interactions and the rhythm of their thoughts. The only person in the room comfortable with the way he sits, silently watchful and sipping tea, is the Fire Daimyo; even the servants are twitchy. Which isn't his fault at all, as he is moderating his chakra appropriately, not armed and not even projecting his opinions of certain _ridiculous_ demands to the room at large; they're all just being irrationally fearful.

It may possibly be to do with him recently walking away unscathed from a bijū when his friend did not, but Madara is trying not to think about what happened in Water right now.

The preliminary negotiations and agreements go decently well –the Lightning Daimyo refuses to accept culpability for the behaviour of Kinkaku, Ginkaku and their associates, but _does_ at least recognise that as warriors under his authority, their actions are his _responsibility_ – but then as discussion of appropriate reparation for lives lost _during_ the embargo unfolds, it becomes clear that there has been a critical miscommunication.

What also becomes clear is what advantage the Lightning Daimyo is trying to leverage, prompting the concession of this negotiation which he evidently believed could be carried out with minimal loss of face.

"–Our losses have been significant and we feel the families of those shinobi should be compensated for that loss."

Izuna raises a politely incredulous eyebrow. "Significant."

"We have lost over three hundred shinobi, many of whom were carrying out regular caravan-guarding missions and were unduly targeted."

Izuna accepts a stack of files from Yasakatone, who is acting as Minakata's deputy and representing him to the court on the prison camp matter; her older brother is very busy and has an infant son besides. "How interesting. We, on the other hand, have two-hundred-and-seventeen prisoners of war we would appreciate that the Lightning Daimyo recompense us for feeding and housing, one-hundred-and-sixty-three of whom were under the age of military enlistment when captured." Izuna pauses, eyeing the suddenly very still negotiator with cool eyes. "Those clans under our aegis will not be seeking compensation for the losses of the thirty-eight shinobi who have died or been crippled defending Uchiha interests; all were of age and fully cognisant of the risks involved, and our clan is providing for their immediate families." There have only been sixteen deaths, but the small number has made them proportionally more painful. Shimura Dōjun's loss in particular is very keenly felt in the wider village. Yari's loss of her lover and abrupt ascent to Head of the Raiden Lineage are not really felt outside the Uchiha; Yari was only one generation removed from the main line anyway, so even in-clan it is a fairly minor upset.

So many lovely implications in Izuna's words though, from Kumogakure not providing appropriate care and compensation for its shinobi through the exploitation of children –military enlistment in a daimyo's official forces is only permitted from age sixteen– to the Lightning Daimyo being unreasonably grasping in his demands, and also somebody somewhere deliberately losing _all_ the letters that had been sent across the border _multiple times_ informing the Lightning shinobi commanders of the detention of their subordinates pending ransom.

The room's atmosphere turns distinctly frosty.

"I have copies of the complete roster of identities," Izuna continues calmly, selecting a file, "which includes colour portraits, date and location of capture and various vital statistics, with additional identifying details such as names, birth dates and so on when provided. Certain individuals were less than cooperative, despite our making clear that without such specifics it would be more difficult for them to be ransomed back to their families." He pauses, eyeing the diplomat thoughtfully. "Unless, of course, the Lightning Daimyo does not _wish_ to negotiate for the release of those being held by the Uchiha?"

The abruptly shifting emotional undercurrents in the negotiation team make it clear that no, the Lightning Daimyo likely does _not_ want to ransom those people back and that the shinobi members of the party have all simultaneously realised that. Also that the Lightning Daimyo's representative sincerely believed said disappeared shinobi to all be either dead or suborned; is still clinging to that belief, in fact.

Madara scrapes his teacup a scant half-inch across the tabletop, instantly commanding the attention of all present. "I believe the party from Lightning would appreciate copies of the prisoner census and the time to reconsider their demands," he says flatly, glancing politely at the Fire Daimyo. "With your permission, of course, Daimyo-dono."

"A most thoughtful offer, Uchiha-dono," the daimyo agrees warmly. "We shall reconvene tomorrow afternoon. The welfare of a person's subordinates is not a matter to be taken lightly."

It's nice to know that the Fire Daimyo appreciates the effort and care Konohagakure have put into keeping Lightning citizens alive, despite those citizens attempting to kill them at the time. It remains to be seen whether the Lightning Daimyo will be similarly appreciative. His treasury certainly will not.

* * *

Tobirama, by the dubious virtue of sharing command of the Frost border during Lightning's first big push back when Madara was helping the Hyūga, was rather heavily involved in processing unconscious prisoners for transport to the prison camps. Most of the actual paperwork was done by Uchiha –who basically cheated when painting likenesses and measuring people's height and weight– but he'd got a bit involved on the fūinjutsu side, and in determining what to do with the weapons and other property their prisoners had on them.

The eventual solution to that had been to use each prisoner's assigned identification number –necessary when they hadn't known names– to label leather straps or strips of paper, wrap said prisoners' possessions up in their ubiquitous armour-weave jackets and tie the resulting bundles with the straps, then shove them all in an umbrella bag for safekeeping. There is therefore a well-secured cupboard in the command post, containing a set of umbrella bags with number ranges neatly stitched onto the canvas, all containing confiscated possessions.

Most of it is just uniform jackets and weapons, but there are a few sealing scrolls of various types and some letters, trinkets and talismans as well. Tobirama had pressed to confiscate the letters and other miscellaneous items, mainly so they could ensure their hostages would get them back afterwards; some possessions –mostly novels and variously tasteful prints– the prisoners got to keep, as those at least could be verified as free of tracking seals.

Tobirama suspects most of the hostages do not expect to get _anything_ back, regardless of what they have been told. _He_ certainly wouldn't in their situation. The hostage rolls do get updated regularly –generally with names once the hostages arrive at their destination, when the knock-out tags are removed and they are interviewed– but there are persistent holes. The older shinobi generally prefer to withhold all details, while the teenagers –and preteens– are more likely to open up. Especially since giving their captors their name means said captors then _use_ it to address them.

There had however been a few hiccups, mostly since very few of their child hostages have admitted to –or been aware of– surnames. Their naming scheme also seems to lean heavily towards adjectives, so there have been cases of three or more individuals in the same camp all calling themselves the same thing. Those hostages rather awkwardly had not been previously aware of one-another, which had reportedly made it worse; there hadn't quite been any fights, but only because the seals had kicked in. Lots of yelling happened instead, eventually followed by a few amendments to names.

Tobirama knows that there are Uchiha intelligencers doing manual and menial work in all the camps, listening and talking to the hostages on a daily basis to get a feel for Lightning's very militant shinobi village, and that there are reports that he will be allowed to read once he gets home again. He's not really looking forward to it though; what he has seen indicates that the adults of Kumogakure are not particularly interested in nurturing the next generation, only in ensuring said next generation fulfils the role demanded by their increasingly-entrenched propaganda.

His leopards have determined that the first bones of Kumogakure were laid down shortly after Konohagakure's formal establishment thirteen years ago, in the creation of a network of state-funded orphanages and well-appointed foster homes for shinobi children, entirely funded by the Lightning Daimyo. Tobirama has a feeling that a lot of Lightning's independent shinobi were –at the time– greatly relieved to be able to leave their children somewhere safe while taking missions, or to be able to leave the children of relatives somewhere they'd be fed and clothed; a lot of civilian-born children are likely to also be in the system. Then those parents gradually died off –either on missions or to accidents of a varyingly suspect nature– so there is now a generation of teenagers and young adults who have been raised communally with strictly uniform shinobi traning, exposed to a small number of adult shinobi absolutely loyal to their daimyo to look up to as role models, and who were swiftly renamed once their parents or guardians were no longer in the picture, to cut them off from any potential conflicting loyalties.

This is what the Hatake were fleeing when they came south; Tobirama struggles to accept their reasons to delay departure as late as they did. They must have _known_ , have _seen_ what was coming well before that. How long had they watched before finally deciding to leave?

Having had plenty of time to think on this last –very quiet– stint on the border as Madara and Izuna negotiate in the capital, Tobirama is very sure now that it was never the intention of the Gold and Silver Brothers to actually _harm_ Madoma. They just wanted the boy to shut up so they could make off with the quartet of little girls they'd found unattended in the sakura park, three obvious Uchiha and one likely Hatake. If his nephew hadn't bravely stepped in and made a fuss, catching Madara's attention, then Tobirama might never have seen his daughter again. He is trying not to think about that too much; the whole incident is stressful enough to remember already.

The Lightning Daimyo's ruthlessness turns Tobirama's stomach, but on a purely practical level Kumogakure _is_ a work of military genius: an entire army of loyal soldiers, all raised from a very young age to know nothing else, to _love_ nothing else. They are provided for according to their needs, and are in turn expected to obey the desires of their leader, which is couched in terms of 'the people' or 'the village.' To nurture the collective as the collective has nurtured them.

Part of Tobirama wonders what precautions 'the village' has in mind for once their uniformly young shinobi start falling in love and reproducing. Will they encourage marriage, or instead subtly push towards irregular physical encounters, discouraging contraception and welcoming all the resulting unexpected and unwanted newborns into their orphanages? Will reproduction be just one more 'duty'? Will the more privileged, those in the village's upper ranks who have abandoned even their replacement names in favour of romanji ciphers, be permitted or encouraged to marry, to better support the image of their being a 'parent' to their village of orphans?

Will any of them ever question the system they are raised in, which is so radically different to everything else the Elemental Nations has to offer that it is difficult to properly gauge whether the discomfort seeing it provokes is truly moral or merely cultural? Will any of them ever so much as _think_ of leaving, when the rest of the world must be so alien to what they are used to?

Tobirama _does_ think proper provision for orphans is important, but the idea of cutting children off from their identity and heritage is utterly abhorrent. It is likely that those Kumogakure children with bloodline gifts are still receiving training for those gifts, as no doubt said bloodlines are being carefully tracked, but that training will be stripped of cultural references and is likely less effective than a clan child would receive; many of those 'cultural references' serve to create a mindset that improves a child's ability to accept and make use of their innate gifts. As Tobirama knows very well, both from his own upbringing and seeing Kita and Madara –and the rest of the Uchiha– raise their children. One single system does not work for all, especially not when there are bloodlines involved. He himself is raising Yukino very differently to Makuma, seeing as his youngest has many Hatake traits while his oldest has more Uzumaki ones.

He misses his students and his children, even with Kita doing her best to keep him up to date on their doings and the careful calligraphy sheets, wobbly sketches and stilted letters in sloppy hiragana or katakana packed in around the –unnecessarily frequent– official correspondence. With negotiations progressing in the capital, Tobirama hopes that he will be home before the spring. Then perhaps he can return to mending the more mundane difficulties his students face, with calligraphy and first crushes and chakra control and sibling rivalry, rather than gnawing on international issues that are beyond his means to solve.

Perhaps, surrounded once more by children to raise and train and love, he will miss his brother less.

* * *

Sitting in her study, leaning back slightly to accommodate the expanding curve of her abdomen, Kita has to face facts:

The Clan Hall is now too small to fit her children into. This moment would have arrived sooner, but her oldest girls all moved out a while ago.

It wasn't so bad when they were younger and Madara had fewer responsibilities –and therefore fewer clothes– but now he is actually using his bedroom again, if only to keep his armour, weapons and wardrobe in, so it isn't really possible for the children to sleep in there; that Takahara sometimes does anyway is telling. So there's just the one other bedroom and the nursery, which when she has three grown-up daughters, a son and daughter entering puberty and another three children under ten –plus a baby on the way– just isn't enough. Even if the grown-up daughters don't live at home anymore.

Which means she needs to have an extension built. She's drawn up a few rough ideas, but all of them require that she have wings added to either the eastern or western side of the building, which will cause difficulties of its own.

The eastern side of the Hall grounds is mostly low-lying housing for Outguard members, workshops for the less loud and smelly crafts –a good number of basket-weavers' workshops, woodworkers and bakeries catering to the Outguard– and open training spaces, seeing as the south-eastern side of the compound was where the Senju generally attacked. A lot of that has already been shuttered or taken down entirely, so it would be practical to build a wing there. It would however mean that the front path leading to the gate would pass right in front of the wing her children are sleeping in, which is slightly less than ideal. In security terms at least.

The western side is fancier housing that does not belong to Lineage Heads –the remaining Lineage residences curve around the Hall grounds north-east to north-west– interspersed with gardens and small fields, swiftly giving way to workshops, other residential halls and busier streets as well as larger fields and orchards. It's the most inhabited part of the compound even now, but it wouldn't be _too_ much trouble to move the boundary of the Outguard Hall garden west a field-width, seeing as _that_ field only contains mulberry trees and they're easy to transplant. Most of the widow's cooperative is living in the village anyway now, so transferring the remaining trees to somewhere more practical for those few still in the compound could even be construed as helpful.

Kita wants two wings: an east wing that runs parallel to her bedroom, going back alongside the nursery and the bath-house beyond it, with three similarly-sized rooms for her children to sleep in; and a west wing matching it on the far side, with the same space divided into two larger rooms for guests. Ideally they would also move the garden gate around to the west side, facing the wider community rather than towards the outside wall and the Outguard Head's duty of defence, but that's not strictly required.

They will have to put a lot of work into reorganising the garden on three sides of the Hall so it remains aesthetically pleasing and compliments the much larger building appropriately, but Kita knows Midori will be eager to take over that work –her little sister is somehow even _more_ enamoured of gardening now than she was in her early teens, despite having a husband and three small children to raise– and the wings not intruding on the southern end means the pond will be undisturbed.

The existing nursery and children's bedroom will vanish into additional shared living space, but that is no great loss when gaining a further five rooms in recompense and they will be able to fit cupboards to those transitional spaces for additional storage and use them for entertaining. She knows her children would be delighted to have a cool space to play games in the summer, when it's too hot to sit by the iori but there isn't really anywhere else they can all comfortably fit; their bedroom is significantly smaller than the main room even without the clothes chests, the futon rolled up and pushed back against the wall, the writing-cases and the baskets of toys.

The main reason Adatara and Shirakami haven't made a fuss about still being in the nursery is that moving out of it would mean joining their three older siblings in a room that is _already_ slightly too small for comfort. However now she has another baby on the way that really can't continue.

Laying out the accurately proportioned sketches she has made of the Outguard Hall on her desk, Kita finds a fresh sheet of washi, grinds ink and sets about experimenting with what the new wings could look like. She wants to preserve the building's original look so that the Hall remains graceful and pleasing to look at, so she will have to be careful in selecting appropriately harmonious dimensions and making sure the spaces between the wings and the main house are wide enough. In fact she should probably aim to keep them square; that generally looks best and means there will be plenty of space to extend the garden up into them.

Kita is sure Madara will agree to this –and that Minakata will too– but it is generally best to have a plan to present when one wants something quite this complicated. It will not necessarily be approved right away, but it is still a solid starting point.

Once there is a plan, the plan can be changed; however no plan means never getting anything done at all.

"Haha? What are you doing?"

Kita smiles at Sukumo. "I'm drawing, Kumo-chan."

Her eleven-year-old peers over her shoulder at the papers spread across the low table. "Is that for Otō-sama?" In clan matters Madara is Otō-sama, but for family things he is Chichi. All their children seem to draw the line somewhere slightly different, which keeps life interesting.

"Yes it is, treasure."

Sukumo nods, mouse-ear buns bobbing. "I'm going to draw for Otō-sama as well, Haha," she says decisively, then turns and hurries out of Kita's study to fetch her own writing set.

It's very nice to have her daughter keep her company, although Kita suspects that part of her daughter's eagerness stems from a wish to avoid having to practice koto under Ohabari-oba's stern gaze. Her husband's aunt has aged rather before her time, but there is nothing wrong with her eyes or her ears and she has firmly taken charge of the children's music lessons following her recent retirement from being Homeguard Head. Kita is grateful for Ohabari-oba's efforts, although her children –and Izuna's– are rather less so. Obā-sama is a much stricter teacher than Haha, it would seem.

* * *

In the end, arranging the restitution and return of hostages goes awkwardly. Horrendously, cripplingly awkwardly. That the Uchiha are not expecting compensation for those killed and permanently injured under their command means less than nothing when the Lightning Daimyo has to 'buy back' over two-hundred shinobi in order to not lose face with his own men, and not even the Fire Daimyo graciously agreeing to set the 'cost' of Kumogakure's actual losses against those ransoms really helps. The numbers are just too steep. The money will not be sent over all at once, but even those individual payments are frighteningly large when couched in terms of iron, rare metals and similar goods, most of which will come to the Uchiha rather than the Fire Daimyo.

Lightning has lost money under the embargo, lost men fighting the embargo and is now losing _more_ money ending the embargo. After this their daimyo's coffers will be severely depleted and he will be both furious and humiliated at being so mercilessly played. All the more so when Madara can see –from how meticulously Kumogakure has been set up as a self-sustaining military community dependent only on their daimyo– that the man is in fact brilliant. Geniuses unaccustomed to losing take being outmatched rather more harshly than those who have more frequently experienced being outplayed, just as those used to having their power run unchecked take greater offense at being chastised.

Hashirama was never one to lose a battle gracefully. Or an argument.

Firmly pushing that thought down, Madara brings his attention back to the letter he is writing. He had Izuna lower the ransoms based on the work the hostages have done while imprisoned, claiming it was inappropriate to benefit from their labour without remunerating them accordingly when they had not been sentenced under law; they had simply been obeying their commanders as shinobi should. That had been all the face-saving he'd been able to offer, but it _had_ helped smooth things over with the shinobi entourage even though he knows very well that their daimyo will still be fuming in rage.

He will need all the goodwill he can get if he wants to avoid another feud springing up, and the Lightning Daimyo is rather more daunting an enemy than the Senju ever were. He still has a village full of loyal shinobi and an established ruler's political connections, despite losing this brief almost-war.

"Otō-sama!"

Madara quickly sets his brush down and turns, arms opened wide to hug Toshi. "So how's my precious beansprout?" he asks warmly, embracing her, "and what must I do to get back in your good graces so I am 'toto' again?"

His musician daughter giggles against his shoulder, pulling back so she can hide her mirth behind an elegant hanging sleeve. "Toto," she concedes sweetly as she settles next to him, those crinkled eyes and sharp cheekbones strongly reminding Madara of when Kita had been a bright-eyed seventeen-year-old coming into her own.

"I am forgiven!" he teases. "So what brings you here, Toshi-ko?"

His daughter bounces slightly. "I've picked an art name," she tells him brightly.

Madara eyes her; Toshi has always possessed a thick streak of mischief. He'd thought she was following Kita's example there –his wife is _wicked_ when it suits her– but when he'd pretended to complain, Kita had assured him they both got it from their father. The late wire-master had apparently been rather more subversive than was superficially apparent.

"And what feathers will I have to smooth over because of it?" He asks resignedly. He loves all the ladies in his life –they are what make it worth living– but that does not make loving them _easy_.

Toshi giggles again, bright and delighted. "Toto! It's a good name! Kaka would agree with me!"

"And my reservations grow," Madara deadpans, shaking his head in mock dismay and knowing his daughter can see the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Her impish smile rather confirms his fears, but the steely glint in her eye says she is taking good care of herself; his Toshi-ko may not be a warrior, but she is well able to protect herself as skilfully as Kita had at the same age. More effectively even, as she started learning self-defence rather earlier than his wife got the opportunity to. Neither of his twin girls will ever be warriors, but they have the required Homeguard skills appropriate for Heirs to a Lineage –as his wife is yet to decide upon elevating one of the younger children over them– and their mother's Hands-Off seal besides.

Neither has the sharingan, but Madara prefers not to take chances. That he has managed to provide his girls with safe lives up to the present does not mean that safety will continue in his absence.

"I have decided I want to be Kyōka," his beansprout says lightly, eyes fixed on his face.

"The flower in the mirror, hm?" Madara muses idly, deeply amused by the choice. "The lovely reflection, ephemeral, illusory and untouchable? How apt." It is both charmingly aesthetic and a dire warning; _this_ pretty musician is not for courtiers to squabble over, as she is entirely beyond their grasp. "I like it very much, daughter-mine."

"I thought you would," Toshi says amenably, the gleam in her eye saying she knows _why_ he approves too. "So will you come and take tea with myself and Murasaki-sama, Toto? She wants to talk to you before you leave again."

Neatly trapped, and by his own daughter too; Murasaki-sama is truly a formidable opponent. "Very well, Beansprout."

"Don't call me that, I _told_ you what I want to be called now!"

Madara grins, capping his ink bottle and washing his brush. "You'll always be my beansprout, Beansprout," he teases her gently, leaning out of the way of a slap aimed at his head. "Lovely Kyōka, vibrant blossom of the Uchiha Clan," he laughingly placates, "fair to the eye and sweetly fragrant, maker of ephemeral yet resonant beauty beyond all measure and entirely beyond any man's reach –except mine." As is proper; a daughter belongs to her father –legally at least; Madara recognises that a _smart_ man does not treat his daughters as chattel– until he gives her away.

His not-so-little girl rolls her eyes fondly and pokes his shoulder. "Toto, that was _terrible_ ," she informs him primly. "Come on, Murasaki-sama's waiting."

"And who am I to keep Murasaki-sama waiting?" Madara agrees ruefully, well aware that technically ranking rather above said lady will not assist him in avoiding this. And he can't even call on Izuna to rescue him; Murasaki-sama has been most cunning in choosing her moment.

* * *

Tobirama's last act on the Frost border is to arrange for those warriors still at the border –mostly Uchiha and Hatake with a few Kurama, Yamanaka and Nara– to return the confiscated possessions to those they belong to. He arranges this by giving each squad a section of the records –sequential numbers– and the matching umbrella bag, then had the hostages line up at the tables set out at appropriately broad intervals to have their identity verified –against the records and the number embedded in the hostages' chakra-locking seals– receive their possessions and then have their seals unlocked.

Not unlocked by a fūinjutsu expert, but by a 'skeleton key' tag that only worked if a specific person is holding it. The mountain pass is therefore full of variously young shinobi pulling on jackets and re-holstering kunai, pocketing keepsakes and talking more or less quietly to comrades they haven't seen since being captured. There's been no small number of tearful reunions as well, which has kept the general mood in the area of 'confused' rather than 'sullen' or worse, 'resentful.'

Other Lightning shinobi arrive over the pass to hustle their comrades back across the border, watched steadily by the forces of the Fire Daimyo who escorted the prisoners up here at near-civilian speeds; mainly archers –and largely mounted– to pick off anyone attempting to escape. The samurai in charge greeted Tobirama with much fanfare and a letter from Madara, as well as formal orders announcing the details of the end of the embargo. Izuna has very clearly contributed to that; certain wording choices are distinctive. Madara lacks that flair in phrasing and hides the deficiency behind formality and confidence; however Madara's particular flavour of formal can be _desperately_ archaic.

Once all those from Lightning have had their belongings restored to them –and it really _is_ everyone, nobody has died while in custody which is definitely a miracle– and climbed over the pass, Tobirama formally announces that their mission is complete –the daimyo's men listen, caught between amusement and horror at the indiscipline when there is cheering from all the shinobi present– accepts his own umbrella bag from Benten, makes sure nothing and nobody has been left behind and then leads the way south-west, heading cross-country for home.

It's mid-March, the sakura will soon be blooming –if it hasn't started already– and Tobirama doesn't want to miss his son's eighth birthday. It's bad enough that he has missed almost a full month of the winter teaching term at the Academy due to military necessities –he is most grateful to everybody who has covered for him there– and he only has another year –at most– with his remaining students before they start apprenticing, be it with relatives, the police force or the Outguard. He's hoping the ones with summer birthdays agree to stay on for more than just the spring term, as the longer they stay the longer he will have to teach them. Not that he intends to _stop_ teaching them once they have graduated, but he will no longer be as accessible to them and they will have new, different teachers, all expecting their new students to be attentive and devote time to _their_ lessons.

The longest part of the journey home is navigating the mountains of Hot Water; once they are back on the plains of Fire the rest of the trip takes barely half a day. Of course it helps that everybody is well-rested, well-fed and as desperately eager to be home as he is; no matter how flattering it is to be trusted to hold the rearguard and wrap up the last of the politics, it is also a great deal of effort.

However to be met at the village gate –a freestanding torī– by his excitedly bouncing son and impatient daughter and being mobbed by both of them under the indulgent eyes of the Homeguard sentries somehow makes it all well worth it. He's home.

* * *

Tobirama spends his first day back with his children, hearing about everything he's missed over the past almost-month and enjoying the fact that he _can_ spend a whole day doting on his son and daughter without the village falling down around his ears. He dropped off his report at the Outguard Headquarters right after returning, so he doesn't have to do _anything_ unless Madara or Izuna decide they'd like clarifications or a personal opinion.

Seeing as, according to Makuma, Madara is part-way through expanding the Outguard Head's Hall so there'll be room for Kita's newest child and Izuna is busily making nice with the village's other clans and smoothing over post-war upsets, Tobirama rather doubts either one is going to be bothering him over shinobi matters any time soon. They may yet ask him to watch their children for them though, which he wouldn't mind at all.

He spends the next day with his children as well, summoning his leopards and having a blissfully restful slow day lounging in the spring sunshine as his daughter brings him flowers, mushrooms and worms and his son babbles happily about fūinjutsu. It is his son's birthday, so Tobirama is happy to mark the occasion by giving both his children all of his attention. Food parcels are left on the doorstep, from his Hatake relatives as well as from Kita, so he doesn't even have to cook. Chika stopped by briefly in the morning, but it is on days like this that Tobirama can see more than ever that she probably would have been happier _without_ children.

Unfortunately that wasn't a viable option for either of them. Still, things are far better now than they were before Yukino was born.

On the third day after returning from the Frost border Mito summons him down to the Clan Hall, so after lunch Tobirama leaves Makuma and Yukino with Kamui's daughter Rakko –who at almost thirteen is more than old enough to supervise them both and whom his children know as nee-san– puts on one of his finer kimono, hakama and haori sets and heads across the village to see what his sister-in-law wants.

She probably wants to discuss Tsunama's ongoing education in his new duties, and how they will be splitting those selfsame responsibilities until he is old enough to take them on himself. The truth is that Hashirama wasn't actually _doing_ most of that himself, even well before he died, so some changes may well be necessary. Tsunama after all does not have his father's reputation on the battlefield to still wagging tongues. Or his father's charisma.

The Senju Clan Hall still feels like Anija. So does Tobirama's own house, actually; his brother was involved in building both of them and while he _did_ manage to refrain from using mokuton for the foundations and the frame, he rather lost patience with the furnishings and cheated. Tobirama doesn't mind; it's… nice actually. Like his brother hasn't left him completely. It's why he sometimes sits up a tree in the Senju tree farm, to enjoy the vibrant spring-growth-wet-earth scent of his brother's chakra lingering in the greenery around him.

Mito serves him thin tea in the pavilion overlooking the garden, which is cool at this time of year but has a beautiful view of new leaves budding and the flowers coming up. His sister-in-law's chakra has always been faintly salted water and good washi, underpinned with the scent of sunshine which all the Uzumaki share and even his own Makuma has a hefty helping of. Tobirama may have to test his son for the Uzumaki chakra chains this year; that is not today's problem though.

Mito's hint of sunshine is late spring afternoons, steady and mildly soporific but carrying the promise of suffocating summer days to come. Tobirama always privately felt she matched Hashirama's spring growth and soil-after-rain very pleasingly, although they were never so close for their chakra signatures to merge together around the edges like some shinobi couples do.

They spend several hours talking about the current state of the Senju clan, from the economic front to the progress being made on the various sections of the tree farm, to who is beginning shinobi classes and who is agitating for civilian apprenticeships –more apprenticeships than warriors again this year, which is turning into a very pleasing trend– and of course, how well-kept the water and sewage systems are and what work needs doing there to both repair and expand. It's stimulating and profoundly enjoyable; Tobirama has never been so proud to be Senju as he is now, but he felt the same last year. And still, with each passing year there are new triumphs and joys to be found.

The conversation drifts to a close; Mito pours more tea and hesitates over it. "There has yet to be a memorial for my husband," she murmurs. "A tablet was made for the family shrine, but no official ceremony has been held."

Tobirama frowns –that's a bit unusual when he was expecting Mito to arrange that after returning from Uzushio, even in his absence– and taps his fingertips on the side of his cup. "Usually it is a spouse or child who oversees such things," he says. If his brother had neither, only _then_ would it be Tobirama's responsibility.

Mito shifts uncomfortably. "I would appreciate it if you or Keika were to walk Tsunama through what is expected," she says quietly.

That… is most strange. "You are not comfortable doing so?"

Mito pauses, watching him with sudden uneasy clarity. "You do not know," she says abruptly. "Tobirama, my apologies, I…"

Tobirama sips his tea to cover for the frisson of dread that climbs his spine, then sets the cup back on the table and cradles it in both hands.

"Know _what_ exactly?"

Mito nibbles her lower lip, a rare sign of nerves. "Tobirama, I…" She visibly pulls herself together. "Tobirama, brother, Hashirama used his mokuton to restrain the Sanbi, and discovered that he could bind it in truth. He immediately spoke of binding _all_ the bijū, that they might never trouble humanity again."

Tobirama reels. It is _ridiculous_ –it is _insane_ – it is all _too_ plausible –oh _Anija_ you _**fool**_ –

"Madara naturally objected," Mito continues, chakra tight and stormy, "and they fought. I have never seen a fight like that one, Tobirama, it was so terribly focused and acutely, unpleasantly _personal_. No big jutsu, no dramatic pauses; just close, swift, dirty and utterly vicious."

Tobirama can believe it. Madara wasn't leading his clan on the battlefield, he was fighting for his life –for the lives of his _children_ , oh _Anija_ how could you never _see_ that power breeds only fear and envy not adulation– and doing so _knowing_ that Hashirama outmatched him in every way that mattered in a fight.

"Hashirama pulled Madara's arm out of its socket and went to slit his throat," Mito says clinically, "and I knew that he wasn't going to stop. That he _would_ win, and that then he would expect _me_ to assist in his folly. So I didn't wait. I stabbed him through the heart with one of my chains while he was distracted."

Between Tobirama's hands the tea cup shatters into three large jagged pieces, spilling hot tea and smaller fragments across the table.

"I did not remove the chain until he was dead, and then I made Madara burn the body," Mito continues, soft and relentless as the tide, "and had him release the Sanbi as well. Then when we returned to the boats I said that it had been the bijū to vaporise my husband; the mist had been heavy and the fight loud, protracted and violent enough that nobody questioned it. Madara did not speak against me; he was deeply in shock and remained so even after leaving Uzushio three days later."

Tobirama cannot stay here any longer. He cannot hear this. He _cannot_ –

* * *

The sky has clouded over and a fine rain is falling. He is not wearing sandals.

The ground is wet and muddy, and the ruins of the former Senju compound are silent and overgrown with weeds.

It _hurts_ Anija how _could_ you _**why**_ –

So _cold_ –

Aniseed tree all around him and slender fingers pressing on his throat; Death has found him.

Tobirama just wants it all to _end_.


	14. Interlude: Izuna

Izuna is not enjoying _any_ of this. He was having a nice day out in the park with his wife and children, keeping an eye on a few nieces, nephews and younger cousins in passing as appropriate, but now his brother is in trouble, his sister-in-law is rampaging and he has been thrust into a position of responsibility and authority because _somebody_ has to make sure nobody annoys Kita while she's being draconic.

Unfortunately that person is _him_ , by virtue of being little brother to the Outguard Head. The people Kita is vehemently murdering are outsiders, so their deaths are an Outguard matter even though the violence is taking place _within_ the village, so while the Homeguard is stepping up alongside the police force to instil order and move everybody to a safe distance –well a _comforting_ distance, Izuna won't commit to 'safe' where his sister-in-law is concerned, not ever– it's Izuna and Hikaku who are responsible for containing the actual fight.

If you can call what Kita's doing to those idiots a fight. Izuna wouldn't. For it to be a fight both sides have to be capable of damaging the other and Kita is yet to be so much as delayed by blade, strength or jutsu so he's pretty sure this counts as a massacre. Not that he's objecting; he's not sure what set this off, but he has every faith in his brother and sister's sense of proportion. Kita's especially; if _she's_ doing this then they can definitely smooth it all over afterwards, once she's calmed down. By how quickly they're dying there's unlikely to be much collateral damage, although Izuna isn't sure there'll be much _corpse_.

It's not just him and Hikaku having to create the impression of containing the situation, thankfully: Sakurajima has left her husband in charge of their brood of children so as to hold the perimeter and Oshiki arrived a minute ago to help. Sahoro is probably on his way too, or else right across the village and blissfully oblivious to what's going down at the sakura park. Izuna doesn't actually care which it is; it's not like they actually _need_ to keep Kita contained. She's perfectly self-contained all by herself and is not about to go rampaging across the village. It's just about image and putting on a good show for their numerous guests, and of course the other clans and Konohagakure citizens.

"The park's clear of civilians, Izuna-sama," a Yamanaka wearing an orange police sash says with a quick salute.

"Excellent; go assure people the Uchiha have matters well in hand, would you?" Izuna tells her. This could easily turn into a political disaster with how many nobles and foreigners are in the village right now, but with a bit of care and forethought it can be turned to their advantage.

The Yamanaka clearly hears the subtext. "A summons then, Izuna-sama?"

"My sister-in-law is extremely protective of children," Izuna replies without actually answering the question one way or another. It's true _enough_ and he knows the kids were involved –he sensed both Madoma and Sukumo right before Madara's Susano-o hid them– so really, Kita losing her chill like this is to be expected. She's been due another dramatic blowout anyway and this is a very impressive mess, one that is likely to get messier once the the civilians stop panicking and start demanding explanations.

Sensing a profoundly _unwelcome_ arrival, Izuna swiftly turns and calls on his own Susano-o to grab Hashirama with a skeletal hand before the kudzu idiot can charge past him and escalate the whole situation unnecessarily. There's no telling _what_ he'd do if he came face-to-snout with Kita right now and Izuna can do without finding out.

"Everybody not part of the Outguard is to stay _out_ of the sakura park," he says firmly, yanking the blockhead back to the gates.

"Tobirama's still in there!" Hashirama insists grimly, pushing his way out of the Susano-o's grip with pure brute force. Not that Izuna's actively opposing him, but that still _considerably_ more than most people can do. _Where_ is he getting the _leverage_ from?

"I _know_ he is," Izuna retorts, poking the nominal Senju Clan Head in the solar plexus with a gigantic skeletal finger. "He's safer than you'd be; Kita genuinely likes him."

The blockhead actually pauses. "Kita's there too? But all I can sense is the dragon killing people and Madara hiding!"

"It's a wani and it's Kita's," Izuna says shortly, which is as far as he's willing to go there.

"But people are _dying_!"

Izuna grits his teeth. "People who just tried to _stab your son_ , Hashirama," he snaps sharply; he _felt_ the knife go through Madara's chest, the sudden shock rippling through his brother's chakra in the slip-second before the Susano-o went up. "You can thank my brother for saving Madoma's life later."

The blockhead actually stops. "Madoma?" He asks quietly, turning to actually make eye-contact despite Izuna's active Mangekyō sharingan.

"He was with Sukumo," Izuna says, distantly aware of the fight being all over bar the clean-up and of Tobirama approaching Kita with either zero fear or zero self-preservation instincts. He personally has only been at a couple of her Mangekyō training sessions, but he knows the transformation makes her very wild and her instincts have to be respected; a warrior might lose an arm otherwise.

Tobirama is however either supremely confident in his own instincts' ability to keep him out of trouble or has great faith in Kita's attachment to him, because by the feel of their respective chakra he is now climbing _on_ her. Well, nobody has ever claimed Tobirama lacked courage…

"Is my son well? I can't sense him," Hashirama insists, voice soft in a way that makes the hairs on the back of Izuna's neck stand to attention. Thankfully at that very moment Madara's Susano-o dissolves, so he is able to answer:

"Madoma is unharmed; just a little shaken. Tobirama's with him right now so could you _please_ leave the park and go reassure our guests that everything's under control." Hashirama may be a disaster at the negotiating table but he's got charisma coming out of his ears and a very large proportion of their noble visitors find him charming for some bizarre reason.

The Senju Head nods sharply with a grateful smile. "Of course Izuna; I'd be delighted to help! Thank you for humouring me." He turns and strides back through the gates like he was never going to do anything else. Izuna lets the tension seep out of his shoulders; the kudzu man may be a _moron_ but he's a highly _dangerous_ moron whose priorities Izuna has never quite managed to pin down. He _can't_ predict the kudzu unless somebody else is leading the man by the nose; it's something he's going to have to remind himself of more often.

For now though he's going to head in and find out what exactly set his sister off like that. Considering how many of her victims had a strongly Lightning flavour to them, it's probably going to involve politics.

* * *

Izuna hates hates _hates_ his big brother right now, because said big brother is a petty, vindictive pile of _shit_ who has put him in charge of the shinobi side of the embargo against Lightning. He is therefore in charge of picking out the warriors going north and of managing them once they get there, for however long it takes for the Lightning Daimyo to either cave under the pressure from his court or declare war. Which means that everybody and their mother are coming after _him_ demanding they be allowed to come along, that it's favouritism that their son isn't being allowed to 'prove himself' and every other possible complaint under the sun.

Madara did this on _purpose_ and Izuna will have his _revenge_! However Izuna is also going to do this _properly_ because to do otherwise is to dishonour the clan and himself. He's not ruining his own reputation over this, he has his pride! So he is going to set some standards, make selections according to those standards and everybody who doesn't meet those standards can take a hike, no matter _which_ clan they're from. This way he can cut out everybody who doesn't meet the Outguard age requirement and push all the offended elders and ambitious mothers off on Tobirama, who as the chief Academy instructor can explain in very small words why Madara doesn't believe in making exceptions for _anybody_.

He's going to recruit Tōka as deputy, because that will look good, and he already knows he can't avoid taking Hashirama along because the kudzu will just make a nuisance of himself in the village and he's a brilliant battlefield shinobi, so they should make use of that. He just won't be in charge.

Actually he can't promote Tōka over the kudzu in the field; it would be _impolitic_. Tōka can be his 'strategy advisor' then, as that gives her words more weight in planning and logistics and lets the Senju Clan Head lead on the battlefield, because he's actually not terrible at that. Plus it means the kudzu can feel like he's reducing the number of potential deaths by dealing out variously grievous injuries to entire squads at a time while everybody else hangs back and enjoys not being a target.

Izuna takes a full day to thoughtfully deliberate over the specialisations that the warriors he takes with him will need to have –as opposed to the specialisations that will be needed for the missions ongoing throughout the embargo– decides on a few Uchiha veterans he wants to manage sub-groups –and a few non-Uchiha veterans as well, to be fair– and writes a preliminary list. Then he sends messengers down to the various mission offices with inquiries on who on their regular mission lists is both in the village and possessing the necessary specialisations, then sets out to personally visit the various homes of the warriors he wants managing squads.

He doubts any of them will turn him down, although he recognises that his choices are definitely going to upset those _not_ chosen. Then again, he can point out he was being considerate and not wanting to prevent their clans from continuing to take more lucrative missions during the embargo. It's not like this is any more than glorified body-guarding, for all they're watching a border not a person, and the daimyo's not going to pay them all that much. It's possible Hot Water's daimyo will chip in to 'encourage' them to consider his nation's interests, but it's still not going to be as good as guarding a caravan or running a trading trip. It'll be steady yes, but that just means it's going to get boring very quickly. That's going to have to be a selection standard, isn't it; 'self-managing and not disruptive when bored' is an important quality for a shinobi assigned to what is essentially sentry duty.

He wants Sarutobi Sasuke, because the man's _good_ and taking him will make the Sarutobi Clan feel appreciated and flattered. He's not taking any Hatake, because half of them have already left the village on their own business and _they_ will undoubtedly already be up in Hot Water breaking heads. He also wants Yamanaka Inoka, because sweet Amaterasu that woman is a _terror_ , so he'll probably get her twin Inoko tagging along as well, which is fine because Inoko's a solid medic and very practiced at swapping places with her twin, to the point that some villagers think Yamanaka Inosuke only has the one sister but with a split personality.

He'll take whichever ino-shika-chō the Akimichi offer him –all those teams are capable– and will probably have a Nara strategist foisted on him as well, but that's one more pair of hands to share the paperwork with and be left in charge while he sleeps, so that's acceptable. Shimura Dōjun is solid and principled, so he'll make a reliable supervisor for checking over caravans and extorting appropriate fees, and Aburame Teien is both capable and highly-ranked enough within his clan that any other Aburame he ends up taking will defer to him without complaint.

He's probably going to have to take Inuzuka Nomi, because she's going to be next matriarch when Mitsu-bā finally croaks and also because she is _vastly_ more cunning and thoughtful than her brother, for all that Inuzuka Nodo and his two dogs are an unpredictable howling whirlwind to fight. He might end up taking Nodo anyway, but he's going to leave that at Nomi-san's discretion. She knows her clansmen best and if she thinks they need him they'll take him, although he's pretty sure she will insist they _don't_ take him, if only to have him in reserve for if hostilities escalate.

They're going to need to keep most of the heavy combat specialists in reserve, so that nobody can claim they were over-zealous in enforcing the embargo. The only heavy combat specialist he's taking –outside of his command team– is the kudzu, who is so terribly verbose about wanting everybody to get along and not kill each-other that fielding him can be spun as diplomatic rather than militant.

He doesn't have anybody in particular in mind from the minor clans like the Shiranui, Kurama or Utatane –there's nobody that stands out– so he'll work from the mission office recommendations and the advice of people he trusts who have trained or run missions alongside those individuals he's interested in. There've been a fair number of cross-clan missions –long-distance trading in particular– and Madara has been running Outguard training courses for all the village's shinobi for _years_ now; the career Outguard veterans _will_ know everybody.

Admittedly _he_ will probably know these people when he sees them since he's participated in most of that training too, but he's never bothered to learn the names of most of the village's out-clan shinobi. There's too many of them and most of them aren't really worth remembering. Now though he should probably make an effort, as knowing the names of everybody under his command will look good and help the campaign run smoothly. It will however be a lot of _work_ , so he's going to have to find something amusing and embarrassing to inflict on Madara in retaliation for all this upcoming effort.

At least on the front he will have plenty of time for plotting his revenge.

* * *

When the letter from his brother arrives Izuna foolishly opens it at once; five seconds in he has to tightly excuse himself from the command post –an abandoned farmhouse they have repaired fully in the weeks since arriving– to put up a few reusable pre-made seals and swear the air blue. Yes, so Madara has at least _noticed_ the Hyūga are up to something, but his socially inept older sibling has once again failed to pick up on all the _nuances_ of their so-called generosity!

"Commander?"

Izuna turns towards Nara Kazuki, firmly subduing his sharingan. "Yes, Nara-san?"

"Trouble?" the strategist drawls, curiosity well-hidden behind his typically indolent façade.

"The Hyūga, in their _infinite_ generosity," Izuna says with as much decorum as he can muster right now as he breaks the seal perimeter, "are sending us reinforcements. Thirty clansmen and twenty vassals, the latter probably taken from the Mizuchi, Yūhi, Utsugi and Nohara clans." Those were the most well-known of the Hyūga's various allies at least. Minor shinobi clans, most of whom only swore oaths of service after joining the Hyūga's new village; Izuna's pretty sure the Yūhi are technically a Hyūga offshoot though. Although the only thing he _specifically_ knows about that clan is that they are most of the Hyūga's presence at court.

"Independent?" Tōka asks from where she's slumped on the farmhouse's back step.

"Placed under my command," Izuna grumbles, taking down the last of the seals and passing the letter to Kazuki; if his brother wanted the information to be kept confidential it would be in sharingan code, which it's not. It even arrived by runner, not by crow, so this is Official Wartime Correspondence and likely to be subject to external scrutiny. There will no doubt be a more personal letter waiting in his private quarters, for him to read and then either squirrel away or burn. He _is_ thankful to still be indisputably in command –clarity saves lives– but getting all those out-village warriors up to Outguard standards in between patrols is going to be so much more _work_.

"How unusual," the Nara says mildly, eyes flicking swiftly over the letter.

"Politics?" Tōka asks sharply. Izuna nods shortly.

"We will have to adjust our tactics," is all Kazuki says in return, but Izuna's sure there'll be more useful insights from the man later and from the two Yamanaka as well, once they've had time to process the information and consider the nuances and repercussions. Izuna's come up with several of his own already, but alternate viewpoints and experiences are never superfluous. The Uchiha have allies now and it would be foolish not to take advantage. There have been a few scuffles on the border already –most notably against a band of idiots who discovered the effectiveness of Kita's Hands-Off seal for themselves– but it will only get worse.

* * *

"Izuna-sama, this can't be a battlefield situation; it needs to be a policing situation."

Izuna glances at Nakano, whose older brother is in fact _in_ the police force. "How so?" Nakano's all of nineteen, but he's experienced and he's been assigned to Hyūga-wrangling and negotiation because he's polite, personable and good at compromising without causing anybody to lose face. He's also been smart enough to bring this to the command post while the kudzu is out leading a border patrol, which shows commendable good sense.

Nakano grimaces. "Izuna-sama… two of the shinobi on that last infiltration attempt couldn't have been more than thirteen. If it had turned into a fight I would have hesitated to stab them. If this turns into a battlefront _everybody_ on our side is going to flinch at the idea of killing a child. But if it's a _policing_ situation, with knockout seals rather than blades and chakra suppression matrices on hand for secure restraint, that's going to be more effective."

Nakano has a point; the Lightning warriors have no doubt noticed that the Konohagakure forces tend to ignore the child shinobi –which is generally out of unease or suppressed outrage– so they seem to be fielding more of them down here on purpose. The Hyūga don't care, but then again the Hyūga train everybody in their clan in the basics of their taijutsu style so they probably can't see anything wrong with a pre-teen on a battlefield. They haven't _sent_ any pre-teens to the Frost border, but that's mostly because they've sent their _best_ and pre-teens aren't that, not even little prodigies. Not long enough reach or sufficient stamina. As it is Izuna's forces now include a third as many teenagers as before, one of whom only turned sixteen last week.

Izuna has become increasingly opposed to kids on the battlefield the older he's got. When he was a teenager he thought it was normal, when Aniki set up the treaty he could kind of see the point but still thought Madara was over-reacting and when Ena turned eight and he realised that at her age he was already learning to wield a sword… well. _Then_ he got it. He still doesn't want his little girl anywhere _near_ a battlefield, never mind that she's ten now and he'd already killed people by then.

"Policing, as in crazy lunatics trained to let the armed, infuriated, jutsu-wielding shinobi _charge_ them and slap a seal on while dodging at the last minute," Sarutobi Sasuke says wryly. "Well, that will certainly be different."

Hidaka has created an elite force to keep order within the village; Izuna is very proud of his baby cousin's achievement. Everybody respects the skill and nerve it takes to effectively police shinobi, but sparring with the police force is something most shinobi learn to dislike very quickly; their dodging skills are frustrating but some of the faster and more playful members have a distressing tendency to 'confiscate' weapons used against them, since not being able to hit them is 'evidence' that their opponent doesn't know how to use said weapons properly. It's meant in good fun but Izuna is _very_ happy that Tobirama much prefers teaching to policing; his rival is blindingly fast even without fūinjutsu cheating and did demonstrations for Hidaka's initial training group that were clearly _inspirational_ for the newly-formed police force. Not that he realised quite _how_ inspirational until later, or so the story goes. Madara is not the only socially inept shinobi of Izuna's acquaintance.

"There are people here familiar with the seals," Izuna concedes, "but nobody with the police force's training in non-lethal suppression. I'll have to write to Nii-sama and rotate people out, so Lightning doesn't notice right away that we've modified our tactical objectives."

Konohagakure doesn't actually have all that many shinobi with police training; it's not exactly compatible with regular Outguard training, so people are generally encouraged to specialise in one way _or_ the other. It also takes nerves of steel and incredible confidence, but everybody here is capable enough to fake that for a bit. It's not like they need the sensitive interpersonal community bits and de-escalation training; just the seal-handling techniques and focusing exercises to suppress the pervasive 'stab first' instinct.

"So what will you do with all those 'arrested' shinobi?" Tōka asks, looking amused and vaguely proud of how squeamish their kōhai are. It shows how strong their village has become that they can _afford_ such hesitance and Izuna is keen to assert that strength, so all the world can see that cruelty and ruthlessness are indicators of weakness and lack of imagination. Any idiot can resort to violence; a smart man knows when to deploy it to best effect but a wise man can avoid it entirely.

"Ransom them back to their clans, I assume," Nara Kazuki says mildly, "or their military leader, given that Lightning seems to be encouraging its shinobi to see themselves as one big clan that this A fellow is Head of." 'A' is what the Lightning Daimyo's brother is styling himself as; from what Izuna has read in Hijiri's espionage reports, the Lightning shinobi are using romanji-based epithets for their elite warriors and command hierarchy; A's second and bodyguard is called 'B' and his strategic advisor is 'C'.

"We'd need a prison camp, Izuna-sama," Hyūga Hinichi points out flatly, "and reassign people to guard it." He sounds unenthusiastic, but isn't criticising their plan; he clearly wants to hear how they'd go about achieving it.

"Not that many people; chakra-binding seals are very effective and can include non-violence clauses, and we can use Okā-sama's kiddie-leash seals to bind them to a specific area," Benten says easily from the corner she's been standing in since escorting Nakano to the command centre. "I mean, they worked fine on Senju Tobirama so I doubt anybody Lightning can field will give us trouble."

Izuna is never going to stop finding it amusing that Kita basically tied Tobirama to her apron-strings like a wayward toddler back when he was a hostage. Or that _everybody_ now knows about that.

It's even funnier when you look at how the man behaves now and realise that he's basically re-ordered his life to orbit hers despite _not_ being on a leash anymore. Not that he seems to have really acknowledged it just yet and the kudzu is blissfully oblivious, but Tōka has definitely noticed and so has Mito.

"The issue would be keeping them busy," Yamanaka Inoka points out, taping her fingers. "Idle hands make trouble after all."

"No forced labour; that would be framed as exploitation," Yamanaka Inoko continues, "but set things up so they're bound to a place just large enough for a dormitory, open-air exercise court and dining hall, then arrange a longer 'leash' for those who volunteer to do work in a neighbouring building or out-of-doors?"

"No chakra, no activity except stretching and taijutsu sparring," Shimura Dōjun says thoughtfully. "Many would volunteer for work, even though they might frame it as an espionage opportunity. But what to make them do…"

Hikaku shrugs. "Rock picking? We always need rocks and they're good for road foundations as well as buildings," he offers. "Lightning shinobi aren't so good in temperate forests, but they could forage on the side for extra food, which would be another incentive."

"Tree felling and plank sawing," Hijiri suggests quietly. "It's messy, unpleasant work without chakra but timber is always useful."

"Gives us something to build the prison compound with too," Tōka agrees.

"Compounds; we need to split people up," Izuna says firmly. "Kids by themselves; they'll be more easily managed without known adult authority figures. Split up squads to reduce the likelihood of escape attempts, multiple much smaller camps for mature shinobi to make them harder for outsiders to track down and meticulous paperwork so we don't lose anybody." That would look very bad indeed.

"Homeguard can manage some of that, Izuna-sama," Nakano points out.

"As can our more support-orientated shinobi and a good number of civilians," Kazuki muses. "Our village's civilian population is no less outraged by the assault on our liege-lord's children than the shinobi are."

That is an _excellent_ idea and means Izuna can delegate wholesale to his cousin Minakata, who will give him Ohabari-oba's Deeply Unimpressed Dead Fish Stare but still do a very fine job covering all the details nobody else would think of. "I'll write to my brother," he decides; "Teien, Tōka, Dōjun, Sasuke, Kazuki, Ino-tsui, I'd appreciate your contributions for the Council of Clans." He's been calling the Yamanaka twins 'Ino-tsui' since they were nosy teenagers and isn't about to stop now, and Madara while _can_ be unilateral about deciding that this _will_ be done since it involves the Outguard, it's better to have the village's cooperation. "Nakano, write up your policing suggestion and Hijiri will have it delivered to Hidaka."

If Nakano is going to be thoughtful and proactive he needs leadership training and this is a good start. Yes, everybody here _is_ a specialist in diplomacy and negotiation, tracking, covert investigation or scouting, but nobody _else_ came to him with this problem, which means nobody else was really noticing it _was_ a problem. Or at least not noticing it was something that could _become_ a problem if the tense face-offs and occasional threats of violence turn into actual fights.

"Do we need to request a fūinjutsu specialist?" Shimura Dōjun asks.

"We've got two of Okā-sama's apprentices, we'll be fine," Benten dismisses. She does not mention the identities of those apprentices; that is for the individuals themselves to decide if they wish to be revealed. They probably won't; everybody in the clan knows what happened to the previous sets of 'public' apprentices.

Never mind that _all_ the medics can probably draw that knockout seal from memory –they've long since co-opted it for keeping recalcitrant patients in line– and every last mother and older sister in the Outguard will know the leash seal as well. It's not like Kita's fūinjutsu is particularly hard to draw and she's never been one to keep her designs secret when their clansmen express a need.

Well, most of them anyway. Izuna knows very well that there _will_ be secret seal designs, but they are secret _enough_ that not even rumour of their existence will get out before his sister-in-law is good and ready for them to do so.

* * *

Seikaku drops off a message from Madara before winging on to find Hashirama, which means that when the kudzu dashes into the command post half an hour later Izuna is _prepared_.

"You're leaving immediately, of course," he says the moment Hashirama throws open the door, beckoning the man closer and gesturing at the maps covering the table. "Going by topography, I think the quickest route to Shigegakure from here is along the Amatsu Valley all the way to where it reaches the Makoto flowing up from the south-east, then turn south, skirting wide of Nekoma-yama." He traces the route on the map, following the topography lines and tapping the mountain in question. Shinobi travel fast –shinobi such as his brother and the kudzu faster than most, having the chakra to fuel the speed and the stamina to keep going in a fight afterwards– but it's easiest to travel fast on decently level ground or downhill. The route Izuna just picked involves a steady downhill gradient, allowing momentum to speed the pace. It's the route he would take if he were going, which he isn't. Madara has not relieved him of the border and anyway he won't spend more time with the kudzu if he can possibly avoid it.

"Yes," Hashirama agrees, eyes darting along the route. "Reinforcements?"

"I'm sending the Hyūga forces after you with Sarutobi Sasuke and our best trackers," Izuna agrees; the Hyūga and their allies know the land better and more importantly know the people, which will make tracking survivors easier. "But you're fastest, so better that they not try to keep up with you at all; I'm calling them in once you've left. Madara's already on the move ahead of a heavy combat strike force, so you'll meet him there."

Hashirama nods, eyes intent on the map and clearly memorizing notable features. "I'm fully supplied and I left Yari-san in charge of the squad with a wood clone," he says briskly. "They said they'd continue the circuit without me."

Those wood clones are not particularly strong, but they are fully independent and do mimic the kudzu's overall attitude _exactly_ which is honestly more important at this point. Also gratifying is how the man has picked up on referring to the Outguard's women warriors with neutral pronouns, both on and off the field; it says he's paying attention. "I'll assign Tobirama to them once he arrives," Izuna promises. That's a good squad and Tobirama will appreciate their skill range, though he'll probably slide into the mentor position and have Yari be leader instead.

The kudzu flashes him a distracted grin. "Thanks Izuna! And thanks for showing me the map; this will take several hours off my travel time."

"You're welcome," Izuna says shortly.

Hashirama leaves, vanishing into the trees like the wood fairies in his mother's bedtime stories. Izuna gets Madara's letter out again and starts going over the names, tallying them against the names of the reinforcements he's sending south and planning how to best re-arrange _all_ his forces to ensure an even skill distribution along the border, with additional heavy hitters assigned to major choke points.

At this rate he's not going to sleep at all, but this is more important. Once he's made his decisions he can leave the actual welcoming and arranging to Tōka and the Ino-tsui. He's not feeling very welcoming right now; there will undoubtedly be a push from Lightning once they realise Hashirama has left, so even with the police seals to hand and a few camps set up and ready, people are going to die.

* * *

Izuna has been wrestling irritably with the politics of the Hyūga settling in Konohagakure –temporarily, Hisaaki-dono insists, _temporarily_ , but Izuna is not about to hand out concessions just because the other man says his clan won't be here for long; if he doesn't make them fight for every inch they'll decide it's comfortable enough here to _never_ leave and the Uchiha then won't be able to kick them out– for several months now, but the other noble clan seem to finally be accepting that _no_ , the Uchiha _aren't_ just going to sell them a chunk of prime farmland near the cultural district, if they're here _temporarily_ they can rent like the civilians and minor clans do.

And no, the Uchiha aren't going to build them houses either; again, they can build their own, have their vassals do it or else pay civilians to do the heavy lifting. The Hyūga don't have a full treaty with the Uchiha like every other clan in Konohagakure does, just a modest non-aggression agreement, so coming to their rescue was neither required nor expected of them. It was a _favour_ , like how Hisaaki-dono sending those warriors up to the Frost border was a _favour_ , and nothing is owed the other clan at all.

Admittedly the Hyūga Branch House members and able-bodied vassals did a very good job of putting up rudimentary housing before the first frosts and a good number of Akimichi, Senju and Uchiha _did_ help with the heavy lifting in erecting their main hall, so really Hisaaki-dono has nothing to complain about. He's got a roof over his head and everything. It's just not furnished in the manner to which he is accustomed, accommodation is cramped and the food available is rather basic.

Izuna is trying to be patient, seeing as Hisaaki-dono is struggling with his own grief, two grieving children –including an Heiress who may never walk without a limp– and a newly-returned wife who is both blind and can't move her legs at all. He's also heard a rumour that Hinagiku-san is pregnant, which is a lovely exploding tag he's going to avoid so much as _hinting_ around because while there is a chance it's her husband's, it _not_ being so is significantly more likely. Recent events being what they were.

Kita's pregnant too, and Izuna has never been more grateful for his sister-in-law's Mangekyō transformation. If the Uchiha clan compound is ever attacked while he and Madara are unable to help –unlikely but not impossible– Kita will never be in Hinagiku's position. E won't either; his wife is very proactive and destructive in her fūinjutsu efforts and the only way anybody will _ever_ be laying a hand on their precious children is for her to not only be dead but all her sealing efforts unravelled beforehand. Which is about as likely as being invited to tea on the moon by the Shinigami.

Hearing from Kita that Madara's coming back from Water –immediately, possibly within the next day or so– is therefore a massive relief, as all these things are very soon going to be his brother's problem and Hisaaki-dono is going to have to be a whole lot more polite and deferential about his demands when the Uchiha he's talking to needs to be addressed as 'sama' rather than 'dono'.

With that in mind, Izuna informs Hisaaki-dono of Madara's imminent return when the man comes to continue negotiations –complain– and is rewarded by a whole raft of agreements and concessions, including that _deeply_ contentious clause that, should any Konohagakure citizen marry a Hyūga Branch House member, said citizen's children will receive the Uchiha Hands Off seal should they be born with the byakugan rather than the Hyūga's Caged Bird seal.

Izuna was able to have Kita examine the Hyūga's seal as a condition of even letting the Branch House into the village. Her conclusions –that it's a well-made abomination with loopholes you could drive a cattle stampede through and designed more to imprison than protect– informed quite a lot about the new and improved treaty Hisaaki-dono has only just deigned to sign. Including the bit where nobody wearing the Caged Bird seal is permitted to take Konohagakure-authorised missions –for security and confidentiality reasons– which ironically never got protested.

A critical oversight, since that means the Main House will have to take on the burden of pursuing employment and bringing in money from outside the village, despite being barely a quarter of the size of the Branch House and over half of them currently sporting variously serious injuries. If they can't step up, Hisaaki-dono will have to either unseal a bunch of his chattel-kin or become vastly more dependent on his vassals.

Izuna had known already that Hinagiku was the smart one out of the two of them, but he'd still expected better from Hisaaki-dono. Was this what happened when you let ego get in the way of good governance and proper care for your kinsmen? Still, the treaty is signed and that's the important bit; Hyūga Hinagiku's inevitable deposition of her husband and usurpation of his political duties will be entertainment for another day.

Then Madara arrives, showing up on the maps mid-afternoon the following day and reaching the compound a little before sunset. And suddenly Izuna is _concerned_.

His big brother is _not okay_.

"Niisan?"

Madara blinks tiredly at him, mechanically shedding his sandals in the genkan. "Izuna." He fumbles slowly for his slippers, managing to put them on the correct feet on his third attempt. "We found everybody. And destroyed all the stolen eyes, and the bloodline thieves." The decision had been made _not_ to bring any eyes back, because there was no way of knowing whose eyes they were and meant they could avoid the entire contentious question of who would _get_ those eyes. Seeing as there very _certainly_ were fewer 'salvageable' eyeballs than blinded Hyūga.

"What went wrong, Niisan?" Izuna asks softly.

Madara closes his eyes. "The Sanbi."

Izuna gapes in horror. "And you _lived_?"

His brother's chakra cracks. "Hashirama didn't."

Oh _fuck_ –

"Aniki, can I do anything?" Izuna begs.

His brother's shoulders sag as he turns towards the front entrance of the Clan Hall, chakra already reaching towards Kita's. "Go north. Tell Tobirama. He needs to come home."

Because Tsunama is only seventeen, too young to be Senju Clan Head. Because that's Tobirama's job now, the poor bastard. Because there's a _lot_ that's going to need to be dealt with _quickly_ now Hashirama's not in play anymore, so they can keep up a strong façade and end things appropriately with Lightning.

Because it's vanishingly unlikely there's going to be a body for a funeral, considering the destruction a bijū can wreak.

Izuna turns around and hurries home; he needs to let his wife know he's leaving immediately and why, then stop by Outguard Headquarters to tell them too. He'll have Hikaku return with Tobirama; Yori would skin him otherwise and his cousin will run the everyday missions well enough seeing as Madara's unlikely to be able to.

He may not have liked Hashirama much –or at all, honestly– but he was still precious to Madara. His brother's really going to struggle in the coming weeks and months, but at least he lets Kita help him. That's something.

* * *

Izuna, for the record, had been minding his own business. Specifically he'd been on his way home to the Uchiha compound after an enjoyable afternoon of tea and illusions with Tōka, Yūhi Senkō and Kurama Watagumo when some inconsiderate asshole had _blazed_ past him and knocked him into the bushes. Izuna had righted himself, noticed the front gate of the Senju Compound swinging and had a suspicion.

Walking up the front path had revealed Tobirama's coat and sandals abandoned in the genkan, a pair of house slippers tossed one in a bush and the other in a drain, and a detour to the nearest Homeguard Post confirmed his suspicions: yes, that _had_ been the only surviving Senju brother who has just vanished off the edge of the map.

Who, considering how locked down his chakra had been, probably isn't feeling very good right now.

Izuna curses the little voice in his head that sounds like his sister-in-law and wants him to go check on her almost-brother. Then he curses it some more when a raindrop hit his face as he arrives at Tobirama's house with the coat and sandals.

"You're not Tō," Yukino accuses reproachfully as he hangs up the coat in the genkan, Kamui's Rakko-chan watching him from further inside the house.

"No I'm not," Izuna agrees dryly, setting down the sandals. "Rakko-chan, your charges will be having a sleepover with my two; I'm taking Tobirama to my Nii-sama and his wife when I find him." E won't mind and it's better than leaving them here without a trusted adult in easy reach.

"Hai, Izuna-sama," Rakko-chan agrees, easily divining that he has committed to fixing whatever has gone wrong and therefore not bothering to worry about it. Her faith in him is touching; if it involved anybody other than Tobirama Izuna would be gratified.

The rain's not really heavy, just persistent. It hangs across the village like a fine mist, condensing into heavier droplets under the trees as Izuna follows in Tobirama's wake. It's not hard; he may have been suppressing his chakra into invisibility but he wasn't making much of an effort to hide footprints or other traces. Izuna just has to follow the trail of broken branches, frightened birds and smeared footprints. It's still not an _easy_ trail; the traces are widely-spaced, if less subtle than would be the case if Tobirama were focusing on stealth. Still, even without that focus Izuna is still pursuing a shinobi with considerable experience in woodcraft and it definitely shows.

As he makes his way southeast Izuna realises he's travelling in a straight line towards the old Senju Compound, which makes him swear some more. That Tobirama is _clearly_ running around in a kimono and tabi does nothing to assuage his concerns there; sane people do not do that. Sane people put their sandals on first and grab their coats. And it's _still_ raining, slowing Izuna down even more by obscuring the trail.

He doesn't run on ahead towards the no doubt ruined compound; there being no chakra traces means he might miss trail signs if he did that, and there's no guarantee Tobirama will be in any of the remaining buildings rather than some old childish hideaway that Izuna naturally knows nothing about. So he has to continue working from one trace to the next, following the widely-spaced patches of crushed moss, shattered twigs and trampled plants until they lead him to his quarry.

* * *

It takes hours.

 _Hours_.

But there is a certain degree of satisfaction in finding the wayward Senju curled up among the exposed roots of a toppled stump, the fine kimono, hakama and haori Kita had made for him smeared with mud, ooze and all manner of other things Izuna doesn't want to look at too closely. The idiot is also soaked through, barefoot –Izuna has the ruined tabi tucked into his belt– and, when Izuna checks his throat, far too cold.

Also suspiciously unresponsive. He _knows_ the man's somewhat conscious by his breathing but Tobirama's _still_ letting Izuna put his fingers all over the big veins in his neck and press down, which he really shouldn't be. Tobirama should be batting his hands away on instinct, defending vulnerable points.

Well, Tobirama _was_ somewhat conscious when Izuna arrived; now he's very definitely _not_.

Izuna can't leave the man out here; his chakra is still suppressed to nothing –how does he _do_ that?– so it won't keep him warm, it's raining and he's so far from properly dressed it's pathetic. Never mind that if that kimono gets any more ruined than it is already Kita will _never_ let him hear the end of it.

Sighing deeply, Izuna bends down and wrestles the sodden unconscious body over his shoulder. At least getting _back_ to the Uchiha compound will be quicker. Maybe he can drop the filthy and possibly hypothermic Senju on his brother as a measure of petty revenge?


	15. Chapter 15

Madara had received Kita's plans for the enlargement of the Clan Hall while still in the capital, looked them over and sent them back with both his approval and a request that the work be carried out as swiftly as possible, no matter that building both wings at once would be loud, disruptive and rather expensive in terms of both labour and having the clans' craftspeople prioritise the work over other orders.

His wife is seven months pregnant; he wants their home to be fully refurbished well before she gives birth, so that she does not have to worry about anything other than parenting the newborn once it arrives. Laying the foundations won't take very long once the ground is cleared and levelled, and from laying the first stone to putting the roof on could take as little as a week if enough pairs of hands are involved. Then of course there are the raised floors, the walls, the shōji and the interior fusuma to install, which will take markedly longer due to requiring more specialist and artistic efforts, and the landscaping will take longer still as plants need to be sourced, shaped and have time to grow.

He returns mere days after the letter to find the work in full swing: the adjacent plots of land are cleared, the garden walls have already been taken down and half the compound's children are delightedly spectating when not bringing drinks, carrying rocks or otherwise attempting to help. Takahara is babbling happily about the history of the building –it was much larger once, but between a few lightning strikes and a messy Senju incursion a bit over a century back the current central building was the only section remaining and no Outguard Head from that point on ever had the time or inclination to expand it when the 'diplomatic quarters' were a perfectly good guesthouse– Sukumo wants to show him how she thinks it will look –she's already a very talented illusionist, including subtle details such as the heat of sunlight on skin and the rustling of leaves in the breeze– Mitama is all excited about getting a say in how the new 'children's wing' will be decorated and Shirakami wants to show off the bit of the foundations he's been helping with, but Adatara is more excited about the prospect of big-sisterhood and insists on showing him the basket of baby toys that she and Shirakami are 'giving' to their as-yet unborn younger sibling.

Seeing as Shirakami and Adatara have had those toys for six years, far longer than any of their siblings ever managed, it's not so surprising that they feel proprietary about them. Madara kisses his youngest on the head and praises her generosity, takes an hour to satisfy the demands of his other children then firmly excuses himself to spend time with their mother.

Over the next week the foundations are finished, the pillars raised, the roofs fully tiled, the floors laid and the outer wall panels and shōji are installed. Internal fusuma will take longer, as the craftspeople responsible are still working on them, but with the outer frame of the wings completed the house is no longer vulnerable to a change in the weather. Not a moment too soon either; early the following afternoon a fine, persistent rain begins to fall.

Rain brings the children indoors; however the building work means that both the smaller bedrooms have been converted into corridor and are still off-limits, so the only places they can play are either around the iori or in their parents' bedrooms. All five of them are currently sharing Madara's official bedroom; he's moved his weapons and armour into his study for the time being, and regularly moves his actual desk out into the front reception room during the day like his father used to, occupying the heart of the house so nobody can come or go without his knowing it.

It's also more practical to put an extra set of shōji between himself and the sounds of construction; it's not quiet, and there are still clansmen working outside despite the rain. Mostly landscaping in preparation for Midori replanting and expanding the garden, but also checks on how the new buildings are holding up to water. The roofs haven't been sealed with Kita's fūinjutsu yet, so this is the moment to check for weak points and leaks as well as ensure there's a space set aside to draw a Lightning Line.

Currently Madara's going over the clan finances with Kakuzu, tallying the final costs of the war offset against the additional money the daimyo has provided the Uchiha clan with in recognition of 'going beyond the requirements of the mission' and digging into what revenue the clan has lost by virtue of having fewer people available to take missions –or just not quite the right people for the mission, leading to wasted time, damages and other difficulties– as well as the costs and losses involved in rescuing the Hyūga and said clan's current residence in the village.

There is also the not-so-small issue of yet another court visit this autumn; properly Shirakami should have been present at the Shichi-Go-San in the capital _last_ November, but Madara was chasing pirates across Water Country at the time and it is the Uchiha Outguard Head who has to present his sons to the daimyo, not the Outguard Head's wife.

Most nobles only present their eldest son unless they spend _all_ their time at court –in which case each and every child is presented– but the shinobi noble clans tend to do 'eldest child and first son' and the Uchiha take it a step further due to how Outguard succession works, presenting the firstborn and all sons thereafter. Madara was first introduced to the capital and daimyo aged seven, as was Izuna; Yahiko _should_ have been, but he was killed mere weeks before he was due to travel south with their father and neither of his youngest brothers ever saw their seventh year.

Madara has presented Takahara and Mitama to the daimyo already, and unlike his father he did not travel with just the sons in question and an armed entourage; he took his wife both times, despite Kita having a ten-week-old Adatara to nurse the autumn after Takahara turned seven. Admittedly Murasaki-sama had been delighted –as much by the eleven-year-old Toshi and Azami as by seven-year-old Takahara, newly-six Sukumo, fearlessly charming four-year-old Mitama or the infant Shirakami and Adatara– but it had been a _lot_ of hard work keeping all those energetic and curious small children contained, as much for the large entourage his wife had thankfully insisted on as for Madara himself.

The second visit had been both calmer and more chaotic, as Mitama's seventh year involved Shirakami celebrating his fourth birthday in the capital and Adatara being a tiny mobile menace of a toddler whose favourite word was 'why?'. Murasaki-sama had insisted on dressing up said toddler –her being three– for the celebrations as well, which Kita had allowed but meant that in the autumn after turning five his daughter had been _very_ disappointed to learn she wouldn't be getting to go to the capital that year.

Shirakami's birthday is actually _on_ Shichi-Go-San, but seeing as he was born in the afternoon and the festival starts in the morning, Madara is planning on getting away with presenting his youngest son to the daimyo in the autumn regardless rather than making a special trip this spring. The other 'appropriate' day for presenting sons at court is Boy's Day, but that's in the middle of the fortnight when Kita is due to give birth and Madara has no intention of being anywhere but at home then.

It's not just about hard currency, gemstones and precious metals though, but about how much rice, steel, charcoal, silk cocoons and reeled thread, timber and other goods they have stored and the state of the market both in Fire and abroad.

"Ceramics with the cold-box seals are selling very well in Wind, Madara-sama, so much so we should either increase production or else collaborate to add the seals to a civilian potter's work. The resale value is still climbing, which is losing us money."

Madara frowns thoughtfully, going over clan potters and output in his mind. The clan only has so many kilns and while the village has more, they too are very busy. For this they will have to look a little further afield, but that's not really a problem; it will hardly be the first time the Clan has used a little surreptitious genjutsu to encourage civilians to consider the Uchiha they can see to be confusingly interchangeable. "Collaboration," he decides; "we have enough people who know the seals and it will keep our kilns open for luxury pieces." There is considerable demand for Uchiha work these days, enough so that there are two large kilns dedicated entirely to commissions and another three even larger ones for stock pieces worked on by senior apprentices, alongside the kiln specifically for experimental work. For the fūinjutsu to really stick is has to be applied before firing, which is why they can't just buy pots in bulk and apply the seals afterwards.

He mostly works with the experimental kiln –since it is also open for his personal work, which he gives away when visiting court or when treating with other nobles– but he is well aware of what the others do. They no longer take clay from the riverbank but from the nearby hillsides, which is starting to expose good building stone that Madara is pondering what to do with.

Kakuzu makes a few notes, reshuffles the paperwork and sets some of it aside. "The timber farm is doing very well; that coppicing method the Nara lent us manuals for is proving perfect for growing thin, straight branches for building with and it will only take another decade for the first batch to be strong enough. I think–"

Madara looks up as Izuna shoves the front door open, revealing him standing in the genkan in his damp overcoat with–

"Is that Tobirama?" Madara is on his feet in an instant, Kakuzu even faster and hurrying over to prod the clearly unconscious and sodden Senju, draped in hopefully not ruined finery that is very muddy indeed. The laundry jutsu will require several applications, and even that may not be enough.

"Stop feeding him chakra, idiot!" Sakurajima's broad-shouldered spouse snaps, dragging Tobirama out of Izuna's grasp. "You're fire-natured, you'll char his brain!"

"He's hypothermic!"

"He's water-natured! He's fine! Or he _will_ be now you're not sending his temperature soaring through the roof! To warm up someone water-natured you need to use hot _water_ , not sear the blood in their veins!"

"Next time I'll just leave him to die in a hole in the ground then!" Izuna snarls, flicking his ponytail back over his shoulder. "His kids are at my place; don't let him out until he's behaving sensibly again." He turns and stomps out of the genkan, offended outrage masking genuine concern.

"Kakuzu, you know how to treat this?" Madara asks, stepping closer; Izuna's clearly worried, so Tobirama is definitely the priority. He's helped treat a lot of Uchiha in this condition over the years, but _doesn't_ know what to do for somebody as strongly water-natured as Tobirama.

The green-eyed man nods sharply. "I'll take him to the bathhouse, get him cleaned up and back to a healthy temperature, Madara-sama," he promises gruffly.

"Would another pair of hands help?" Madara asks. Kakuzu is very tall, strong and solidly built, but manhandling an unconscious person singlehandedly is very awkward. Especially when that person is a shinobi who doesn't know you very well and may wake up at any moment.

Kakuzu pauses. "Yes," he decides as the shōji to Kita's study open and she leans out.

"Husband?"

"Tobirama's going to need somewhere to sleep once he's had a bath," Madara says, turning to his wife. "But with the building work…" It's not _remotely_ appropriate to let an unrelated man sleep in his wife's bedroom, but his own bedroom is currently full of children and none of the rest of the house is inhabitable just yet. However they can't just leave Tobirama by the iori either; he's a career shinobi with all the associated instincts and reflexes, it wouldn't be safe. Never mind that there's been a distinct shortage of spare futons since the older girls all moved out…

Kita nods firmly. "You and Kakuzu focus on Tobirama, husband," she says, tone steady and confident despite the concerned undercurrent in her chakra. "I'll have the children help me rearrange the bedrooms appropriately." Madara is grateful for that specification; with how pregnant she is, he wouldn't want her moving all the furniture and bedding on her own.

Kakuzu takes this as his cue and carries Tobirama across the room towards Madara, prompting the Outguard Head to open the shōji to the central room and hurry on ahead past the iori to get the bathhouse set up. Kita's most recent sealing efforts have made the boiler largely unnecessary by adding an array on the roof that somehow turns sunlight into heat, but he still needs to fetch yukata and get an extra basket for Tobirama's clothes, so they can go to the clan laundresses to be salvaged. If they _can_ be salvaged; the muck has had some time to settle into the fabric and there is a certain ground-in quality to the mud in various places, making clear what exactly Tobirama's posture and situation had been before Izuna carried him home.

Madara is uncomfortably aware of what is most likely to have reduced Tobirama to this state. Offering Kakuzu what help he can is all he can do, much as he would like to be able to do more.

* * *

Her children are all delighted to move _all_ the futons, clothes chests, screens and other furniture across the central room and around the iori into the opposite bedrooms; it's a very fine game and means they can set up everything just so for their parents in what is _technically_ the finest room in the house.

Madara has never actually slept in his father's old room before; he's always been with her in what was once his mother's room, even when she had demanding infants to feed every few hours. She's never slept in the best room either, of course, but she was never _expected_ to; Madara was. However it has instead housed Benten, whichever of Kita's sisters were staying with them at various points, Tobirama, Benten again, the twins in the years between puberty and moving out and since then occasionally Takahara.

It's vaguely hilarious that the only reason Madara is _finally_ going to be sleeping in his own bedroom is because it's really _not_ appropriate for him to bring an unrelated man into his _wife's_ bedroom. They will still be sleeping on her futon; it will just be in the other bedroom because Madara hasn't _ever_ had his own futon. When he was a child he shared with Izuna, then went straight from that to sharing with her.

Her children are all gleeful at getting to sleep in their parents' room and are likely still arranging the futons to their satisfaction when Kakuzu and her husband return from the bath house, both now wearing yukata and the younger, taller man carrying Tobirama, who is still unconscious but clean, dry and wearing a spare yukata resist-patterned with scales.

Kita flicks back the blankets and reaches up to help guide Tobirama onto the bed, leaning up and slightly back due to the awkward swell of her belly. Once he's lying down –the yukata can double as a sleeping robe– she reaches over to pull the blankets on top of him.

Tobirama makes a vaguely inquiring noise in his throat and rolls over, forehead colliding with her thigh and arm wrapping around the backs of her knees. Kita quickly shifts her balance, dropping a hand to the floor to lean on, and pauses to take stock.

As she considers her predicament –aware of Kakuzu's embarrassed unease and Madara's bemusement– Tobirama's chakra unwinds from the tight knot behind his solar plexus, rising like a spring and bubbling up just under his skin, bringing a sense of cool freshness to the room.

"Wife?" Madara asks mildly as Kakuzu hesitates next to her, clearly not quite sure whether he should assist the Outguard Head's wife in removing her unconscious attachment or just flee the room and leave the matter to her husband.

Tobirama shifts, nuzzling her thigh and the underside of the straining curve of her abdomen in a way that is definitely _not_ accidental, and makes a vaguely demanding mewling noise. Behind her Madara's chakra twists in sudden mirth and in her peripheral vision Kakuzu _twitches_.

"Kita-sama, should I–?" He reaches for Tobirama's shoulder.

"Kakuzu." He stops instantly. "Please could you visit Izuna to thank him for bringing Tobirama here, and ask Tateshina to send someone over to finish preparing dinner." There's meat and stock simmering for pork soup over the fire in the kitchen, but it will need greens, mushrooms and noodles adding and then taking off the heat.

"Of course, Kita-sama," Kakuzu agrees, nodding briskly before rising to his feet and leaving the room, closing the shōji behind him. Madara kneels by the pillows as the door closes and levers her upright again, supporting her weight so she doesn't sit on Tobirama's arm.

Tobirama follows her up, a thin rind of white just visible between fluttering eyelids as he twists like a cat and plants one shoulder in the curve of her hip, rubbing the side of his face against her pregnant belly, his chakra glimmering and twisting to mimic the pattern of secondary coils in her midsection, swollen with the chakra that is nourishing her unborn.

Madara snorts, drawing her attention to his active sharingan. "Izuna will never believe me otherwise," he defends, face alight with childish glee. "I noticed he was always more attentive when you were pregnant but I didn't realise he was suppressing _this_."

"Are you going to untangle me, husband, or are you going to help me out of my kimono so I don't ruin it?" Kita demands bemusedly, absently petting her friend's fluffy white hair. Yes, the lack of outrage is very nice –it's not like Tobirama can be held accountable for snuggling while unconscious– but she would appreciate a bit more participation in her predicament.

Madara reaches for Tobirama's hand where it's wrapped around her calf; there's a snarl as the grip on her leg tightens. "I'm not risking jolting him awake when he's wrapped around you like this," her husband decides, retreating slightly. "Safer to just let him cling, I think; once you're out of the kimono I'll help you lie down properly."

"Thank you, husband; my back doesn't like this very much." He's right that jolting Tobirama awake with a spike of Intent would be far too risky when she's so pregnant and can't move very well. They've not seen him like this before, so have no way of predicting his reactions. Letting her friend wrap himself around her like a cat is the best of the limited options available, although it means she probably won't be able to eat dinner with the children in an hour or so.

Madara doesn't have any trouble at all getting her out of her kimono, and it isn't like she isn't wearing a nagajuban under it –and underwear besides– so she is still decent enough. Tobirama also proves perfectly amenable to loosening his grip when she is being pushed _towards_ him, so once she is lying on her side on the futon he plasters himself against her spine, the line of his nose crumpling her collar and pressing against her skin where neck meets shoulders, breath hot across the chakra gate there.

That's really _not_ appropriate and Kita is a little uncomfortable with the intimacy –the only person to touch the back of her neck before now has been her husband– but the strangely cool weight of her best friend and the steady calm glimmering in his chakra like sunshine on water help to settle her. He's going to be _exceedingly_ mortified when he wakes up –even more so than after the time he napped in her lap after crying– but this really was the only option available to them after he latched onto her.

Madara bends down to kiss her, promises to bring her dinner and then changes back into his kimono before heading back to the paperwork; responsibility waits for no man. Kita lets her eyes drift close, afternoon sunlight bright and diffuse against the shōji that lead onto the western engawa, and ponders her predicament.

Traditionally, the person an Uchiha activates Mangekyō over is designated as precious and close kin if not a lover; generally retroactively, as grief and loss are conditions for unlocking it. However practically speaking there are many different ways to awaken one's eyes and most of them are nothing to do with protection. Raiden, as she has recently discovered, wakes in anger and judgement; Toyotama-hime awakens in betrayal.

She did not awaken her Mangekyō for Tobirama; it was not betrayal of _him_ that angered her so. How could the Uchiha betray him when none of them trusted him to begin with? It was the betrayal of _her_ , the disregard of guest-right, the betrayal of _her husband_ –who at that point was already desperately fractured over Izuna's almost-death– that had caused her retaliation. That her kinsman's attempt to murder Tobirama was the instigating action did not mean that her defence of him was personal; he was the means of the betrayal, not the one betrayed, and his death would have killed both Izuna and the desperate hopes of peace she and her husband shared.

However she has never protested her family and clan's inclusion of Tobirama, because he _is_ nonetheless desperately dear to her heart. As dear to her now as Hashirama was to Madara, as her husband knows very well. He used to joke about them being a right pair, both so taken with the Senju brothers, and has never begrudged her Tobirama's willingness to reciprocate her care.

She knows it saddened him though. Likely still saddens him, especially now he is mourning Hashirama's death. While the man lived there was still a chance that he might realise how precious Madara considered him, but now he is beyond that.

Kita is quietly, selfishly grateful that Madara loves his children with the same thoughtless devotion that he gifted to Senju Hashirama. It means that Izuna is not the sole pillar on which his sanity rests, and with each new birth his heart grows larger. She's never been quite sure whether he loves her like that –theirs was a slow love, deliberately built and consciously cultivated– but she doesn't mind if he doesn't. He _does_ love her; that's more than enough.

The Uchiha recognise that as a clan they are prone to loving recklessly, and any out-clan person so loved is generally adopted in for safety's sake; Hashirama however could not be adopted, being first the son and heir of a hated enemy, then a Clan Head in his own right. Tobirama _still_ cannot be adopted, since he is now the Senju Head, and she has never asked before because he has always been loyal to his brother first and foremost. Initially out of love, but more recently out of duty and a sense of responsibility to the wider clan.

Kita has never wanted Tobirama to compromise his principles over her or make him feel he has to choose between their friendship and his brother, so she has not asked. However in a few years' time, after Tsunama is twenty and Tobirama has the option of stepping down in his favour, then she may ask Tobirama if he would allow her to adopt him as her brother; she thinks he might even agree.

* * *

Kakuzu returns with Neishi, Tateshina's eldest who is recently thirteen and utterly obsessed with kimono embroidery, and the quiet girl immediately takes over the kitchen, checking the food already cooking and going through the boxes and jars to check that no more supplies are needed. Madara returns to the paperwork and finances as Takahara is solemnly deputised to help with the chopping –his oldest may not be interested in becoming a shinobi but he has all the proper training and can be trusted with knives– and Shirakami and Adatara are both permitted to help with the stirring.

Mitama is curious about what his father and 'uncle' are getting up to, so Madara allows him to sit in for the last few items he and Kakuzu are addressing, which he does silently and attentively. Mitama has just recently turned ten –while Madara was in the capital, in fact– and Minakata is already talking about starting him on learning more about the Homeguard. Madara agrees that his second son would be well-suited to the position –he is deeply caring and very resourceful, as well as exceptionally sociable– and financial matters are one area where Outguard and Homeguard overlap significantly.

Mitama lacks Takahara's effortless facility with the written word, but his mathematics is more than serviceable and he is very sincere about wanting everybody to be happy, which makes him amusingly persuasive. He'll make a good Homeguard Head and even if he does not ascend to the role until he is twenty-five, Minakata will still be able to retire early and devote more time to his wife, children, poetry and shamisen.

Sukumo is as self-managing at eleven as she was at eight, which is why Madara does not think to keep track of her. His error there is revealed after Kakuzu has left, when Neishi announces that dinner is ready and Madara stops gently encouraging Mitama to think about the reasons behind and consequences of the decisions he has just witnessed. He takes two bowls of _tonjiru_ through to the bedroom where Kita and Tobirama are, only to find his quiet, clever daughter sitting beside the futon and working through a basket of mending.

"Sukumo, dinner is ready," he reminds her.

Her eyes flick from the tray he is carrying to where Tobirama is sprawled across her mother, only one ear and that wild shock of white hair visible above the curve of Kita's neck and his right hand intertwined with hers just above the edge of the blankets. "Hai, Chichi," Sukumo says obediently, setting her work aside. "Shall I bring you a bowl as well?"

Madara smiles. "I will serve myself once these two are fed, so my portion does not go cold in the meantime," he assures her. "Go and help Neishi keep your siblings in order."

"Hai, Chichi." She leaves the mending behind as she walks past him and closes the shōji after herself, a silent assertion of her intention to return. Madara smiles ruefully at the reminder that Sukumo has inherited _all_ of Ohabari-oba's polite immobility, walks around the futon and settles down, laying the tray on the tatami and smiling at his wife.

"Sukumo would like to know if Bira-oji will be living with us from now on," Kita says ruefully, the angle of her grip on Tobirama's hand making it clear that she has resorted to this to keep him from pressing his palm over her heart. Her other hand is free, but Madara has no illusions that she will be able to feed herself.

"That depends on when and how he wakes," Madara replies, reaching over to help her prop herself up on one elbow, "and how willing he is to return to his own home." He _suspects_ what has reduced Tobirama to this state, but he does not _know_ and there are a thousand different ways to grieve.

His wife hums her agreement even as Tobirama stirs, rubbing his face against her spine and leaning across her shoulder towards the food, nose twitching and eyes closed.

Madara picks up one of the bowls and the chopsticks, bending close so he can feed his wife and nudge the sleep-walking Senju out of the way if necessary. Tobirama however does not interrupt Kita's meal, seemingly content to rest his chin on her shoulder and idly flex his fingers in her grip. Having seen Tobirama's various snow leopard summons sprawl indolently across his lap or over his back in the winter months, their eyes closed and tails twitching absently, Madara is prepared to accept this as a summons-related skewing of human social norms; Maru is honestly no different, and despite now being both twenty-eight and happily married the cat-raised warrior _still_ can't quite grasp that the only women a married man is _supposed_ to lounge on are his wife and sisters. If this is what happens when variously-sized felines raise small impressionable humans, then at least Tobirma is capable of recognising and going along with the social niceties when properly awake; Maru doesn't even bother with _that_.

The leopards also like Kita, curling around her back like furry cushions when she weaves and sews. They were particularly attentive when she was pregnant with Adatara, so that might also be a factor here.

Kita slurps up the last of her noodles and drinks the broth to the dregs, then Madara sets the bowl and chopsticks aside and picks up the other one, offering it to Tobirama. He's not hand-feeding the Senju if he can avoid it.

Tobirama sniffs the bowl daintily then nudges it towards Kita's face; she pointedly turns away from it with a snort. Madara can't help his lips twitching; oh yes, definitely a pregnancy thing. Tobirama's always been _particular_ about making sure Kita eats first when she's pregnant, and that there's more food available in case she wants seconds.

Tobirama accepts her refusal as an invitation, shifting his weight and leaning forwards over Kita's shoulder to get his mouth around the edge of the bowl, eyes still closed and eyelids lax. Madara obligingly tilts the dish slightly so the cooling stock, noodles, meat and vegetables can be slurped up; Tobirama even untangles his hand from Kita's so as to pat the outside of the bowl and shake loose any meat or mushroom pieces left behind.

Madara keeps his sharingan active throughout, because he wants to find out if Tobirama's determination to never acknowledge embarrassment can resist proof of his having acted like a month-old kitten. He also intends to talk to Tōka first thing tomorrow and find out if Tobirama's usually like this when sick, exhausted and bedridden; it being known behaviour would make compensating for it easier. Maru might behave somewhat similarly, but Maru is not Tobirama and snow leopards are not cats such as the Uchiha's allied summons clan. To know what is normal for Tobirama he has to talk to those who know him personally and are familiar with the leopard contract, not just work from what he knows of different individuals half-raised by other felines. He refuses to miscalculate based on guesswork and endanger his wife.

After finishing the soup Tobirama licks the bowl clean –attempts to remove it before he finishes chasing every last droplet of stock elicit a yowl of displeasure– and then resettles himself on the futon, vanishing down under the blankets as he curls up in a ball with the back of his head resting against the curve of Kita's spine, fluffy hair barely visible above the edge of the sheets.

"I am taking this opportunity to wash," Kita says firmly, getting up onto her knees and then climbing to her feet with minimal assistance. Madara's pretty sure that 'wash' is a euphemism in this instance, but doesn't comment and simply helps his wife into a simple kimono. Tobirama being a featureless lump under the blankets in the middle of their futon is a problem for later, after the children have been put to bed and they've had a little time to discuss expectations and desired outcomes like adults.

Madara knows his wife is no less attached to Tobirama than he himself was attached to Hashirama, and if Hashirama had been open to the idea, _he_ would certainly have adopted the other man into his family and opened his home to him. But Hashirama made it clear in many different small ways that he was not interested in that kind of closeness, so Madara was forced to let the dream go. It had hurt.

It still hurts, that Hashirama wanted to be his rival and not his brother. Or perhaps it is that Hashirama had no idea how to _be_ a brother without also being a rival; going by his treatment of Tobirama, the latter often seemed more likely. However Madara has no particular objections to Tobirama becoming an Uchiha; he likes to think he knows the man fairly well after so many years' acquaintance and he's no worse than Izuna.

Admittedly that's because Izuna can be a spiteful, obstinate and deeply petty little monster even at thirty-eight, but his point stands.

* * *

Putting the children to bed is _significantly_ harder when they're all excited over sleeping in Haha's room and also wanting to know about Bira-oji's 'sleepover' and whether he'll play with them in the morning, but Kita is gently unrelenting and Madara is vocally firm, so all five children are tucked up on the futons and half asleep by the time they finally leave the room after storytime.

Madara makes tea over the iori, serving it to her in comfortable silence, as they wait for their children's chakra to properly settle into sleep. It does not take so very long.

"So, what _are_ we doing with your almost-brother, wife?" her husband asks as he steeps the tea leaves for another round.

Kita leans into him, basking in the warmth of his body and chakra. "I know what _I_ want," she admits quietly. "But I don't know what _he_ wants."

That is not entirely true; she has spent enough time with Tobirama and listened attentively enough to what he says and does not say to know very well what he _wants_. The real question is, what will he _do_? Because Tobirama is ever one to deny himself out of duty, but where before duty was an unending service now it is both more sharply defined and potentially limited. Yes, he _could_ choose to remain Senju Head until his own children are old enough to succeed him –by Senju Law he has the right– but neither Makuma nor Yukino have either the training or the inclination for leadership, while Tsunama has both and will be mature enough to lead in three or four more years.

Traditionally speaking Senju Heads do _not_ step down, but Tobirama has spent much of the past decade and a half around Uchiha, who _do_. So he may decide that to step down in Tsunama's favour is better service to both his nephew and his brother's memory, while also allowing him to better fulfil his other responsibilities to the village.

Tobirama's duty was ever to his brother first. Now Hashirama is no more –and her friend has finally learned the manner of his death– Tobirama's duty is to his kin and clan. But over the past decade it has mainly been the Uchiha to whom Tobirama has turned on family matters, with his grandmother and Tōka as occasional exceptions. The Senju may be her friend's _clan_ , but it is her family who are his _kin_. And that is a very important distinction.

By the way her husband is eyeing her fondly, he knows it too. "As you say, wife," he murmurs blithely, pouring more tea into the yumiori and setting her cup in front of her.

Kita gifts him with a reproachful stare before lowering her eyes and picking up her tea.

His amused chuckle is more felt than heard as he sets the teapot down and picks up his own cup. "So what is my wife's desire?" he asks, voice low and rich.

"It is very fortunate," Kita says deliberately, "that we are expanding the house. However it may be that we will have to continue housing guests elsewhere."

Her husband chuckles again, more audibly this time. "It will be at least a week before those rooms are properly finished, beloved," he points out. "But I suppose I can share our futon with your oversized cat until then."

Kita glances up to meet her husband's eyes; she hadn't expected–

Madara smiles down at her, warm and gentle and achingly knowing. "Were my wife less heavy with child I would be more reluctant," he teases wryly, "but she currently finds the prospect of her marital duties less than welcome, so another warm body in our bed will make little difference."

Kita's eyes drop back to her tea and she takes a sip. It is true that the late stages of pregnancy are often something of a chore for her, but this year is _significantly_ less uncomfortable than the last months of carrying Adatara. Then she suffered through an _entire summer_ while heavily pregnant –her daughter not being born until the very end of August– and her heath suffered for it. This baby will be born in the first weeks of May, before the stifling heat arrives, and she is very grateful for that.

"I do not begrudge you your reticence, beloved," Madara continues gently, "and I do truly prefer your honesty and these seasons of restraint to the alternative. For you to embrace me out of nothing more than duty would sour what we share, my heart, and I would not cause you harm for the whole world."

"I know, husband." Kita knows Madara loves her. He shows it every day.

"And yet," the teasing edge returns, "I would not have my wife forget that I am ever at her service, and that if there is _anything_ she might desire of me, it would be my pleasure to provide it."

Kita meets his eyes. "Husband."

His cheeks flush delicately in the half-light of the iori but his eyes are dark and steady. "Wife."

She doesn't remember anymore what it was like to _not_ love Madara. To not feel a warmth in her blood and bones that has nothing to do with chakra whenever he is nearby, to not feel his eyes on her and _know_ that she is seen, desired and sincerely respected. It is true that the final stage of her pregnancies are a trial and she is currently both bloated and sore, but it is _also_ true that her husband's attentive ministrations are exquisitely distracting.

"Husband," she says again, seeing and feeling him react to the change in her tone, "it has been a day of upsets. Would you reassure me?"

Madara very deliberately sets his cup aside, moves hers to sit beside it and shifts around so he is kneeling in front of her. "Beloved, as ever, you have only to ask," he rumbles, voice full of the promise of pleasure. "It is my honour and my joy."

When Madara finally carries her to bed the fire in the iori is all but dead and she is warm right to her bones. She lets her husband undress her, wrap her in her nemaki and tuck her under the blankets. The unexpectedly cool body already there gives her barely half-a-moment's pause –ah yes Tobirama– and then she is comfortably sinking into sleep, warm arms and a soft chuckle in her ear chasing her down into restful oblivion.

* * *

Tobirama can't see why he needs to move. He knows where he is –den- _warm_ - _safe_ – and who is with him –First- _sweet-scented-scales_ -Mate-of-First- _spice-and-fire_ – so he's just going to lie here with his eyes closed, sprawled across both of them.

It's not even dawn. He doesn't _need_ to get up.

The next time he drifts into wakefulness it's because Kita is edging out from under him; needing to go empty her bladder by her scent, something Tobirama doesn't have to worry about just yet thanks to his mastery of Water. Tobirama rolls back against the furnace that is Madara –ignores the bemused ripple in the other man's chakra– and drops off again.

The third time he wakes it's to _water-and-sunshine_ and _static-and-fur_ so he cracks one eye open and croons at his cubs. Yukino promptly sheds her kimono and burrows under the blankets to cuddle, but Makuma just beams before whispering loudly that's he's getting extra lessons from Yamizo-sensei today, to learn more about the complex characters the Uchiha use in their tattoos.

Tobirama manages to smile and hum encouragingly, then once his son has run off he buries his nose in his daughter's hair and deliberately goes back to sleep.

The fourth time he wakes is to the smell of pan-fried _gori_ and a neat pile of his own everyday clothing beside a washbasin. The cooking fish smell drives him from the futon, through a quick washing routine and into a proper outfit, but he still hesitates by the slightly opened shōji leading to the central room of the Uchiha Clan Hall.

He can hear children chattering, smell the usual domestic scents alongside frying fish and sense that his own children are present along with his hosts' and Izuna's two, and that Izuna and E are here also. A very full gathering; thirteen people, although less than half of them are sitting around the iori and the rest are in the kitchen or on the engawa facing the bathhouse.

He does not want to be exposed to so many people. Tobirama closes the shōji leading to the main room, turns around and walks out of the opposite shōji in bare feet, then has to stop because there is suddenly a whole lot more building than he was expecting. This is clearly the extension Makuma was talking about on his birthday; Tobirama can no longer just walk past the children's bedroom and around the corner to the kitchen.

Tobirama still walks right the way around the much-longer engawa, past the new walls and pale, unweathered shōji of this new wing rather than through the inside of the house. The new building is almost as long as the main Hall, if set back by a room-length, and about half the width. Walking around the north end of the wing to the eastern corner reveals a clear view of the kitchen, the long shutters folded back and Kita kneeling over a large pan of the stove, the sound and scent of frying fish unmistakeable, and another wing beyond the bathhouse.

Takahara is leaning over the sink at the other end of the kitchen from his mother, Ena is chopping vegetables at one of the low work-surfaces, Adatara is up on the raised floor and watching the large rice pan on the stove below her like a cat at a mouse-hole, and Mitama is crouched down beside Kita, peering into the oven.

Izuna and Sukumo are inside the Hall, by the iori with Shinmoe and Shirakami, but E and Makuma are on the engawa beyond the kitchen, a brush gripped in the seal-master's steady puppet fingers as she instructs Tobirama's son in calligraphy, while on the near side by where the children's bedroom used to be Madara is entertaining Yukino with a plate as a prop, no doubt telling a story relating to its painted illustration.

This is more home than his brother's house has _ever_ been. It hurts, suddenly sharp like broken ribs rather than the usual quiet ache of lingering scarring; Hashirama never helped Makuma with his kanji or amused Yukino with stories; he didn't even do it with his _own_ children, making excuses about his poor calligraphy or claiming he didn't _know_ any stories suitable for children.

Tobirama smothers a stab of bitter rage; Hashirama just never wanted to _try_. Then he realises his chakra is swirling around him, broadcasting his feelings to the world, and quickly gathers it back under his skin again; Kita is a gifted sensor and even Madara is capable at this close a range, they will _both_ have noticed _that_.

Except neither one of them looks up from their tasks, or betrays by so much as a twitch that they have registered his loss of control. Humiliatingly grateful for their discretion, Tobirama continues around the engawa until he is within earshot of his daughter and Madara, who has set the plate aside and is now telling the story of a mishap involving an unnoticed litter of kittens and _lots_ of pots with paw-prints on them. Yukino is giggling into her hands and rocking happily, dandelion-puff pigtails bouncing; Tobirama has to agree that it's a _very_ funny story, although at the time it was rather alarming as Madara got mobbed by six frightened adult cats when attempting to fire the kiln, due to his not realising some air-headed young queen was raising a litter in there. Yori had to heal a good number of fairly deep scratches on the other potters as well.

After a public scolding _all_ the cats now know better than to sleep in the kilns, no matter _how_ cosy they are when it rains, and the apprentices are being a _lot_ more conscientious about closing them properly when they're not in use. However that does not change that almost half of that particular batch had to be set aside due to paw-prints in the clay and scuff-marks on the glaze that were only discovered _after_ the firing. Tobirama has however heard Kita musing on the possibility of sending one to the Daimyo's new daughter-in-law –who is apparently fond of cats– as an original and amusing gift.

Tobirama _has_ acquired a rice bowl and tea cup marked by kitten paws to give to his daughter for her Shichi-Go-San this year, as she will be five and it is an important milestone in both the Senju and Hatake clans. The Uchiha do not consider it such, interestingly; for them it is the seventh year that matters.

".. and your Ba-sama is wondering if the cats would be willing to _deliberately_ put paw-prints on some of the dishes and bowls, because so many of the clan think cat-marked pottery is adorable that it will probably sell well too," Madara goes on as Tobirama settles himself just out of arm's reach. "Your Yori-ba was wondering about crow-print pottery as well, so that might be fun too."

Yukino laughs aloud, flopping forwards across Madara's knee and rolling onto her back. "Rabbit plates! Frog plates! Puppy plates! Squirrel plates!" she dissolves into giggles again, pressing her hands against her face and squirming happily. Then she notices Tobirama and scrambles across Madara's lap to throw herself at him.

"Tō! Ba-sama _said_ you'd wake up if she cooked fish! You slept _all morning_ , Tō!"

So Kita _had_ done it on purpose; Tobirama hugs his daughter and ponders whether he should be offended. Seeing as there will to be pan-friend _gori_ for lunch, he decides he can overlook the manipulation. This time.

However he should visit the toilet and wash his hands before the meal is served.

* * *

Tobirama doesn't really speak, but he joins them for lunch and eats his share, completely ignoring Izuna's somewhat irritated curiosity over what on _earth_ he was doing curled up in a muddy hole in the rain without his coat. Madara is about to curtail that particular line of inquiry –his brother might need to know what Hashirama tried to do but the children do _not_ – but Kita gets there first.

"It relates to Tobirama's new role as Senju Head, brother-in-law, so unless you've decided to replace my husband as Outguard Head…"

Izuna shudders exaggeratedly. "Most certainly _not_ ," he declares, turning pointedly away from Tobirama. "Do _not_ tell me, I don't want to know. But next time _do_ take your coat."

Tobirama ducks his head closer to his bowl, which is as close to agreement as anybody is likely to get from him today.

After the meal is over and most of the children have run off to either play or watch the floors in the new wings be varnished, Tobirama slinks around the iori to quietly ask for a word in Madara's study. Seeing no reason why not Madara agrees; he moved the desk back in there after Kakuzu left last night, and while it will be a bit cramped with his armour and weapons' stand, there's only two of them to fit in there. Not at all like trying to debrief a squad.

It's quiet in the study, sunshine streaming in through the south-facing shōji and filling the room with bright warmth. Madara expects Tobirama to lean against one of the bookshelves or scroll racks, but instead he walks up to the desk and kneels in front of it, like a subordinate offering a report or a supplicant. A little curious what has brought this on, Madara steps into his own role as Outguard Head and sits seiza behind the desk.

Tobirama immediately bows deeply. "Uchiha-sama, I ask that you have mercy on my clan for my brother's transgressions, and spare his children when apportioning proper retribution for his crimes against your person as is your right as his liege-lord."

Madara winces internally, knowing Tobirama will have read that flicker in his chakra. He's right of course; Hashirama attacking him _does_ have implications far beyond the personal. Madara is a nobleman and the Senju are his vassals; for any one of them to strike him outside of a sanctioned spar is a crime, and to attempt his murder is punishable by the death of the perpetrator and their entire household. Depending on how one defines 'household,' that can include not just parents, siblings, children and the children of siblings, but also uncles and aunts and _their_ children and grandchildren.

Striking a vassal is unfortunately not only legal but so normal as to be beneath comment; a vassal striking _back_ is however an offence, with having the offending hand chopped _off_ rating at the lower end of the punishment scale.

Madara can't cover up Hashirama's offense; too many people know about it already, so it _will_ reach the Daimyo sooner or later, and if Madara has not extracted appropriate recompense by then the Daimyo is allowed to step in and select a punishment _he_ considers acceptable. Which may well involve wiping out three entire _generations_ of the Senju clan's main family, so that nobody else gets any _ideas_ about treating the nobility with less than their due deference and respect. If it had been a random Senju warrior things would be different, but Hashirama was their _Head_ and so his behaviour is considered an indication of clan policy. As such Madara has the option of considering the treaty broken, which he _isn't_ going to do, but it's still an _option_ and one the Senju should be reminded of so they do not dispute their punishment too loudly.

"Very well then, Senju-san," Madara says aloud, prompting Tobirama to sit up again so he can meet the judgement head-on, "Attend to the punishment that Senju Hashirama, Head of the Senju Clan, has earned for his clan, by his attack on the person of his liegelord Uchiha Madara and the attempt on said liegelord's life, and the reward that Senju Mito has earned in her saving of the life of her liegelord Uchiha Madara, thus clarifying that her husband acted as a man alone and not as a clan head, thereby preserving the peace treaty by her actions."

If Mito hadn't stepped in when she did, Madara would probably have used Tsukuyomi on Hashirama; his friend never _did_ learn not to meet his eyes. Hashirama had always been strong enough in Yang chakra to throw off most sharingan illusions almost as soon as they were cast, but not even Hashirama had the strength of will to withstand a kami and Tsukuyomi is particular to Izuna's Mangekyō. He has not faced Hashirama on the battlefield since gaining his brother's eyes, so Hashirama never learned that Madara now carries Tsukuyomi alongside Amaterasu and Susano-o, or that Izuna carries Amaterasu alongside Tsukuyomi and his own Susano-o. Madara honestly isn't sure whether he would have been able to kill his friend while Hashirama was incapacitated by the Mangekyō genjutsu, but Mito made sure the decision was out of his hands so he will never know now.

"Senju tradition states that, in the event of the death of a Clan Head before his children are of age, the strongest warrior in his immediate family will succeed him," Madara continues; he learned all this in the years following the treaty, because to be an effective lord he needs to know his vassals' history and traditions. Tobirama and Tōka were both very helpful there, as was Tōka's father Tokonoma. "And that warrior's children will then succeed him, as the Headship has passed to him in its entirety, unless another challenges them for it and demands they prove their worthiness through strength of arms."

Tobirama's chakra is fully suppressed, making him almost impossible to read, but he does wince slightly around the eyes at this pronouncement. No doubt well aware that neither of his children have either the aptitude or the inclination for leadership; also that neither of them are sufficiently Senju for the rest of the clan to accept their authority. Madara continues:

"So here are my terms for the Senju clan: for her defence of my person and service to me above even her oaths to her husband, I desire that the Headship of the Senju pass to Senju Tsunama after you, as the firstborn child of Senju Mito, and to his children or his siblings and their children after him, for so long as her bloodline endures. No more will the Senju pass only from warrior to warrior, but from diplomat to diplomat and from scholar to scholar." Madara pauses for that to sink in.

"As you command, Uchiha-sama," Tobirama murmurs humbly, head bowed. It is a significant punishment; Madara is sentencing the Senju to diminish as shinobi, taking the authority and leadership away from their strongest warriors and thereby ensuring that those warriors will no longer be the face of the clan. Fewer Senju will want to focus on strength of arms above all else when doing so does not increase their standing within the clan, and so the traditions and mores that were the foundation of Hashirama's ideals –of the supremacy of strength– will fade and pass away.

"But you, Senju Tobirama, are Head of your clan at this time, and are next in strength after Senju Hashirama," Madara continues steadily. "He was also your brother, so an example must be made to ensure the Senju Clan understands what is required of them."

Tobirama's spine stiffens as his shoulders sink in resignation. Madara would honestly prefer _not_ to penalise Tobirama at all, no matter how token his intended 'example' is going to be, but in order to enforce this change in focus he has to have something that at least _looks_ unpleasantly threatening to hold over the rest of the Senju clan's heads.

"You will not live in the Senju Clan Hall, or your own house," Madara states softly, "but here in the Uchiha Clan Hall. You will lead your clan from here, settle disputes from here and your children will live here also. When I judge Senju Tsunama to have sufficient maturity and competence to lead the Senju Clan, you will abdicate in his favour." No Senju Head has _ever_ abdicated in all their clan's history; every last one has died as Head, be it in battle, in duels over leadership or of wounds or illness in their beds. It is a terrible humiliation, but Madara is sure that Tobirama will bear it better than any other Senju could, having seen Ohabari-oba gracefully step down from being Homeguard Head and various Lineage Heads honourably move aside for unexpected successors bearing their line's Mangekyō.

"As you command, Uchiha-sama."

"You will not leave the Uchiha Clan Hall with your abdication," Madara continues, "but will remain here until the end of your days, departing only when your body is carried forth for your funeral. Your children will be free to leave once they are of age, and will not be barred from visiting you thereafter. Your blood relatives will also be permitted to continue visiting you, but you may not visit them in their homes without mine or my wife's permission, or my successor's permission should she and I die before you. Do you accept this judgement upon your person and your clan, Senju Tobirama?"

"I accept it, Uchiha-sama."

Madara nods. "You have my permission to visit both Senju Mito and Senju Tōka as soon as you are comfortable with, to inform them of my ruling and make appropriate arrangements for the continued smooth governance of your clan. You also have my permission to visit Senju Sunami, and are to extend to her an open invitation to visit you here." He will not separate Tobirama from those of his relatives who have been unquestionably supportive, _especially_ not his now extremely elderly grandmother. "Once the west wing is completed it will be your home; your children may choose to share it with you or join my own children in the east wing. There will be space for a private office and kitchen as well as a bedroom and reception room." It would have all been guest bedrooms, but as Kita says, they do still have the diplomatic quarters. There is also the option for further extensions later, or to build an entirely new guest hall in one of the gaps in the north row left by those Lineage Heads who have moved their primary residences down to the village.

Tobirama bows deeply again. "My deepest thanks for your mercy and kindness, Uchiha-sama; it will be as you say."

"And now that's over with," Madara adds, changing register and making Tobirama jolt in surprise, "I will tell you that so long as you remain a good friend to my wife no harm will befall you here, no matter how foolish your clansmen choose to be, and that seeing as it would be _rude_ to force you to sleep on the tatami by the iori, you will continue to share my futon until the building work is finished. Makuma and Yukino can sleep with our children in Kita's room."

Tobirama sits back upright and visibly struggles for words; Madara takes a moment to enjoy his utter confusion.

"Madara-sama–"

"Madara," Madara insists firmly. They have _done_ with the official edicts for the time being.

"Madara," Tobirama concedes, also shifting register. "That is not the futon I slept on when I was previously your hostage."

"No it isn't." Benten took that one with her when she moved out; they never quite got around to replacing it afterwards, or the one that Toshi made off with when she left for the capital.

Tobirama develops a slight twitch over one eyebrow. "That is your _wife_ 's futon."

"No, it's _my_ futon," Madara counters blandly. "It's in _my_ bedroom, therefore it is _my_ futon."

"Your futon that you have slept on _with your wife_ for the past _twenty years,"_ Tobirama specifies persistently.

"Is there a point to this discussion?" Madara knows that. He was _there_ for all of it.

"Madara!" Tobirama's control on his chakra loosens slightly, revealing a combination of discomfort and longing.

"Yes?"

Tobirama takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "You _know_ how good my sense of smell is."

"Does sleeping on my futon make you feel uncomfortable or unsafe?" Madara asks solicitously, knowing full well that it doesn't. Last night made that abundantly clear.

Tobirama closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Madara, that futon smells like your _marriage_ ," he says flatly. "It is the heart of your relationship with your wife and children. And it smells _really soothing_."

"So your sharing with us is _not_ a problem," Madara determines cheerfully, firmly suppressing the urge to cackle. The smirk however is proving incorrigible.

"Madara, _why_ are you all but _dragging_ me into your _den_?!" Tobirama finally demands, clutching at his hair and looking like he can't decide if Madara is actually serious or not.

"Because my wife cares for you more strongly than she does her own brothers, and that is where she _wants_ you to be," Madara says flatly, since clearly he is going to have to spell this out. "I cared for Hashirama as deeply as I do for Izuna, and I miss him as the brother he never allowed me to be. My wife cares for you just as fiercely as I did –and still _do_ – Hashirama, and she _knows_ you as well as I did your brother. She _knows_ you are struggling. She wants to support you. She _knows_ sharing our futon is something you _want_ to do, so she has discussed it with me and I have agreed. You cannot sleep in _her_ room –that would be _completely_ inappropriate– but you can sleep in mine. So we will _all_ sleep in my room until the extension is built and we have acquired more futons, at which point you will have to decide if you want to keep _this_ futon or would rather have a new one. Is that clear enough?"

Tobirama's face has gone blotchy pink and he is shaking; he ducks his chin, but Madara can still see the overwhelmed tears welling up.

"I'm taking you to Kita," he announces. He then gets to his feet, lifts Tobirama to his and drags the man through the reception room to where Kita is sitting in her study with the shōji open, enjoying the spring sunshine and working on a patchwork blanket for Yari. The new Raiden Lineage Head is pregnant –the father can only be her late lover Nakano– and due to give birth not long after Kita will, which has forced Madara to postpone her Mangekyō training indefinitely. Yari can't put that much strain on herself while pregnant, not when she's _desperate_ to keep the baby.

Upon looking up and seeing Tobirama Kita instantly lifts the half-made blanket off her lap; Tobirama makes a choked sobbing sound and collapses to the tatami next to her, burying his face in her apron with his shoulders shaking.

"Can I fetch you anything, wife?" Madara asks, turning to Kita and politely ignoring Tobirama's ongoing breakdown.

"I would like tea with extra hot water, sakuramochi and pork buns," his wife says firmly, lowering her patchwork onto Tobirama's upper back and running her fingers through his hair. "Akimichi pork buns, the big ones."

"As my wife desires." Madara is sure that will be no problem at all.

* * *

Kita is uneasily aware that she doesn't really _think_ about her three much-younger siblings very often. It's mostly because Jōnen was barely toddling and Tekari and Kinu weren't even _born_ when she was betrothed to Madara, so they don't _feel_ like her siblings the same way that Tateshina, Naka and Midori do. Of course she loves them, but it's a more distant love, like she loves her cousins and her nieces and nephews. They are precious, yes, but not really _known_.

She's thinking about this because Jōnen has just awkwardly approached her today to let her know he's engaged, and he and his fiancée Suribachi –one of Benten's squad-mates, how long has her oldest daughter known this was going on exactly?– would like to marry as soon as possible. Before Tanabata if at all possible, which gives Kita and cousin Yae's wife Itomi not much more than three months to arrange food, kimono and appropriate accommodation for them to move into after the wedding. At least Jōnen prefers the compound to the village, so there are existing vacant houses near the smithing district for him to move into…

Seeing as she has the opportunity, Kita is using it to catch up on her younger siblings and their love-lives. Jōnen and Kinu were raised by Yae and Itomi after their father's death, alongside Itomi's daughter from her first marriage –to a long-dead Outguard warrior– who is called Isamu and about a year older than Kinu, and Yae's six other younger children. All of whom _also_ have 'I' names, because Kita's father was a formative figure in her cousin's life along with his very dubious sense of humour.

Yae now shares the forge with Kinu, his senior apprentice, who is nineteen and edging ever closer to journeyman level, and his sons Inasa, Iwaki and Inaba, aged eighteen, sixteen and fourteen respectively. His daughter Iwahara is ten and mostly interested in cooking, his seven-year-old son Iwate wants to be an ink-maker like his grandfather and namesake was and Inemi the youngest is three, so therefore not yet interested in anything except playing with her dolls and chasing quail around.

Inasa is making gooey eyes at Kinu when she's not looking, which Yae is very clearly aware of and deeply amused by. Seeing as Kinu is equally clearly –and more appropriately– focused on completing her apprenticeship, Kita decides to leave that complication to her cousin; disciplining his son is Yae's responsibility, not hers, and he's been raising her curly-haired sister from early childhood so he has a stake there too.

Kinu is the only one of Kita's sisters to have matched her in height, but she is also developing Mama's curves so it may well be that the pink-and-red silk kimono lovingly packed away by Naka will fit her. That… would be really nice, actually. Kinu does _not_ look much like Mama around the face –she has more of Papa's side of the family there– so it won't be too disconcerting.

Kita doesn't think Kinu will ever look at Inasa the way he's looking at her; to her the other teenager is a little brother, not a potential spouse. Kita has heard a bit about Kinu's adolescent crushes from Midori, who _has_ kept much closer tabs on their younger siblings, and they've all been farmers or traders rather than fellow smiths.

Tekari on the other hand has been living with Aunt Nikko since he was six, raised alongside Nikko's niece Naeba's sons and the various older orphans Naeba took in and raised as well. In fact, Tekari essentially _was_ one of those 'older orphans,' whom he sees as his siblings more than those he shares blood with. After all, he hasn't lived with any of _them_ in almost fifteen years.

Itomi however _has_ been keeping an eye on Tekari for Jōnen and Kinu's sake, and has various stories to share. As a former widow she's also familiar with Tekari's social group of young orphans –she's got various connections with the Widows' Association as well– and is able to tell Kita about how he's almost a journeyman now, just as capable at making razors, spades and scythes as variously-sized shuriken, and has an understanding with a weaver called Iromi –an orphan from age five– who is a year younger than him and showing great promise in kasuri, to the point that the Association have invested in a new mechanical standing loom from Tea Country for her to work on, complete with so many levers and gears that making more of them is going to keep a decent number of the clan's craftsmen busy for months if not years.

He's probably going to be marrying in a year or so as well. Kita doesn't _think_ Azami's met anybody she's that interested in yet –Toshi shows all signs of being about as interested in sex as Tobirama, which is to say not at all– but she might be wrong there. She'll have to find out.

First though, talking to Benten about keeping unnecessary secrets…

* * *

Tobirama spends three glorious, shameful, slothfully negligent days in the Uchiha Clan Hall and its grounds, being cooked for, catered to and generally indulged by Kita and luxuriating in the dangerously tempting comfort of falling into bed with her and Madara at night. It is simply… restful. So _very_ restful. The combined scents –of the two of them and their children, the deeply-ingrained tangled notes of sleep, sex, pregnancy, fear, joy, sorrow and comfort– soothe the whirling of his mind, silencing his thoughts and unknotting his muscles so that he falls asleep within seconds rather than needing a long, slow settling period in order to drop off. He's never slept so well in his _life._

Well, not since early childhood with his mother.

Then on the fourth morning he summons Chikaki to take a message to Tōka, asking her to summon the gathering of the clan on his behalf for that afternoon, changes into his most formal warrior dress –complete with full armour and his happuri– collects the scroll Madara wrote out a fine copy of his edict on and heads down to the village to speak to Mito.

This will be uncomfortable, but it will also be a relief. A profound and achingly selfish relief, because Tobirama does not _want_ to be Clan Head to the Senju.

Once, when he was much younger –and far more ignorant of the wider political realities of Fire Country– he _had_ wanted to be Senju Head, if only because he'd been doing most of the work already and would have appreciated the authority and respect that went with it. However it has been the occasional daydream of idle moments, because while a strong warrior _could_ choose to challenge a Head if they felt that Head was leading poorly, Hashirama was his beloved older brother.

And also _vastly_ outmatched Tobirama in a straight fight.

However in the years since the treaty Tobirama has learned so much, both about the wider world and about himself, discovered a new calling in education, reached out to his mother's family and even made friends, so much so that the prospect of leading the Senju feels… small. Insufficient. Which _is_ terribly selfish of him, but still true. Yes, as younger brother to the previous Head he _is_ next in line, and his being the clan's most powerful warrior means he cannot side-step that responsibility in favour of an uncle or cousin –the clan's warriors would never listen to such a figurehead– but he still doesn't _want_ it.

Hi plan had been to allow _himself_ to become a figurehead for Tsunama, hoping his nephew would in time win over his clansmen with his hard work and the diplomatic skills which are more valuable than brute strength in these more peaceful times, but honestly that had been a fantasy. Those warriors in Tobirama's generation were raised on his father's ideals, to respect strength and nothing else, and they disparage their own children's desires to apply themselves to anything other than war.

Tobirama has had to face down many such disappointed parents on his students' behalf. It does not matter how many times he points out that it is craft and trade that have made the Uchiha wealthy and influential, or that violence only begets more violence; his clansmen do not see it, considering peace most useful in the time it offers to hone martial skills to greater heights. Even Tōka barely sees it, but that is more because she fought so hard and so determinedly to be allowed to fight alongside the clan's men and be seen and respected as a warrior in her own right.

He has not seriously considered abdication before now, because the moment he did that his cousin Hattōma would challenge Tsunama for the headship and win. Since winning involves killing one's opponent, Tobirama refuses to do that to his nephew; never mind that Hattōma is neither as gifted a strategist nor as shrewd a negotiator as he believes himself to be.

However with Madara enforcing this change in clan-wide Senju culture and _insisting_ on Tsunama –on Tobirama's nephew as _Mito's_ son rather than Hashirama's– for the next Head, Tobirama merely standing in until the desired candidate is of age and the spectral weight of mass executions looming over them as the alternative, Tobirama suspects his kinsmen will quiet down rather swiftly. Hashirama having brought this down on _all_ their heads with his conviction that 'might makes right' and carelessness with his obligations to their liege will hopefully shake some of them out of their ruts. The Senju are _very_ fortunate that Madara decided against taking his brother's actions as an act of war breaking the treaty; the penalties of _that_ would have utterly destroyed them as a clan.

He should also remind them of the fact that, _had_ Hashirama succeeded in killing Madara, Kita _would_ have routed and devoured the _entire_ Senju clan while pregnant and dragon-shaped. Tobirama sincerely doubts they'd have any better luck resisting her than the Lightning shinobi had experienced; he's not even sure how Hashirama would have fared against Kita's transformation. Yes, his brother healed well, but severed limbs are far more debilitating than stabbing wounds.

Mito greets him with tea; a different set of cups to last time. He passes her the scroll and nurses his cup as she reads it twice. Once to know what it contains, a second time to grasp the nuances and particulars.

When she finally looks up again he meets her eyes.

"Tobirama, are you… content, with this?" she asks delicately.

"It presents a very elegant solution to a great many of the difficulties we have been considering," Tobirama comments neutrally.

Mito eyeballs him testily. "Brother-in-law, that is _not_ what I meant and you know it."

Tobirama stares back steadily. He _knows_ that his frame of reference for interpersonal relationships is deeply skewed courtesy of Tōnari and Kyōnari acting as surrogate maternal figures to him after Haha died; he may only have fully recognised the breadth of the matter recently, but he still _knows_. He also knows that the vast majority of his relatives and acquaintances are not prepared to reciprocate the care and sensual attention he feels most comfortable offering.

Kita and Madara, rather miraculously, _are_. He is not about to turn that down when they have gone to such lengths to _ensure_ he can accept it without compromising his other responsibilities.

"I prefer this to the alternatives," he says simply, letting her draw her own conclusions.

Apparently that is enough; she nods and looks down at the edict again. "Tōka mentioned you asked her to round up the warriors," she says, rolling up the scroll. "I am willing to act as witness if you require it. If anybody questions the delay we can simply point out that the war was the priority, so Madara was of course not about to address something this contentious when those involved would better serve the village on the battlefront."

"Of course," Tobirama echoes, finishing his tea. He is not looking forward to airing the sordid details of his brother's treason and betrayal of their clan in front of those warriors who looked up to Hashirama as a god made flesh, or even in front of Tanka-ba and Tokonoma-oji, both of whom are still perfectly combat-capable. The worst part _will_ however be the way Chika will _smirk_ at him when he mentions his new accommodations; she is _never_ going to let him hear the end of this.

* * *


	16. Chapter 16

It's been a year since Tobirama moved into the Uchiha Clan Hall and honestly, he's vaguely baffled by how little has changed. He spent ten days tangled in a deceptively comfortable pile with Kita and Madara every night before the new wings were deemed habitable, then after three days trying to settle in his new and very tastefully decorated quarters, ended up back on Madara's futon with both of them for a further month. There are many, many reasons he really shouldn't be doing this, but he still can't bring himself to stop.

He manages to sleep well enough on his own now, but he still finds himself waking up in Madara's bed about twice a week. Usually on purpose; it's less embarrassing to make allowances for his own weakness than it is to wake up in a different bed to the one he went to sleep in, opening his eyes to an amused Madara complete with a story of him trying to get into Kita's bedroom.

Nowadays both spouses sleep on a futon in Madara's room rather than Kita's, nominally for convenience's sake, although her clothing and personal effects are still stored over there. The children are universally baffled by this abrupt reversal of the established norm, but when Benten first visited after the change she grinned all too knowingly and then smoothly changed the subject to ask how her younger siblings liked their new wing.

The children like the new wing very much; they also like that his children are sharing it with them, and that they are further away from their new baby sibling, who has very healthy lungs and is a somewhat colicky.

Tobirama regularly crawls out of Madara's futon to walk the baby around the house in the middle of the night, purring softly to her. Little Ashitaka, born on Boy's Day, is a fairly large and very alert baby, but she's clearly having a few problems that the medics can't quite pin down. On top of the problems they can pin down, like the fact she has persistent digestive issues and is currently teething.

She very much likes his purring; Tobirama is spending at least three hours a day with Kita's new daughter tucked inside the front of his shirt, purring as he does Senju paperwork or while going over his students' graduation paperwork, paring down their skill profiles into something that will suit the mission offices. Purring is just about the only thing that reliably gets her to stop screaming.

Kita's been muttering about sensory processing and filtering, but she's very blatantly too tired to do anything fūinjutsu-related about it; generally after handing him the baby she then curls up in bed –fully dressed– for a nap.

Sometimes she curls up on his futon, the shōji connecting his bedroom to the passage left half-open so she can get up quickly when Ashitaka needs feeding. She would get up to change the baby's nappies as well, but Tobirama is perfectly capable of doing so himself and having the infant pressed against his skin means he can tell when he will need to do so some minutes before it actually happens. He therefore can often get the baby stripped and held over the toilet so that no changing is necessary, which means no tears, no screaming and Kita sleeping markedly longer.

It has to be said that Madara is doing at least half of the night-time wandering around, as the permanent shadows under his eyes attest. He also managed to have a quiet word with his cousin Obihiro shortly after Ashitaka stopped sleeping at night aged five months, so Obihiro's eighteen-year-old daughter Nari is doing almost all the cooking now; Nari has enlisted additional help to clean the now very large Clan Hall, although Tobirama prefers to clean his own section personally if he can. His office and bedroom at the very least.

Kita's time is neatly divided between sleeping, caring for the baby and making sure her older children don't feel neglected, everything else crammed in between those three and frequrntly overlapping. Tobirama suspects there's husband-and-wife time also being fitted in there somehow –their scents confirm his suspicions– but it's never where he can see it and he frankly prefers not to see it anyway, so he is not prying. Their chakra is well-blended around the edges, blurring into each-other and fluctuating gently in perfect synchrony, so he's not borrowing trouble. If a problem ever does surface, he's sure it will be dealt with promptly.

Ashitaka's a very pretty baby when she's not screaming. Dark Uchiha eyes, fine and fluffy black hair that sticks up every-which-way, a pointy chin that is very like Izuna's and the exact same ears as Kita's sister Naka-coatmaker. She however has Madara's hands and feet, which Kita finds adorable.

Other than the screaming baby, it's been a fairly good year. Kita's brother Jōnen got married in June, which was when Tobirama discovered –embarrassingly belatedly– that Azami and Toshi-ko are in fact Kita's sisters not the children of her body. Their mother died birthing them, so Kita took them in –"still wet and bloody," she told him with a wry smile– and raised them as her own. She wasn't even married at that point, though she had apparently already been living in the Clan Hall.

Both twins insist that Kita is 'their mother in all the ways that matter,' but it does explain why they call Kinu 'neechan,' despite all the other children calling the newly-journeyman wire-smith 'Kinu-ba,' Benten included, despite Benten being older that her 'Kinu-ba'.

Jōnen turns out to be another wire-smith that Tobirama has seen around the compound, easily recognisable by his missing fingers and heavy scarring. Hearing that they are the relic of a tiger attack as a small child, Tobirama is impressed he survived the incident at all. His new bride is Suribachi, a warrior he is rather more familiar with due to her being in the same squad as Benten; an intelligencier to match Benten's diplomatic specialty, so they've been on the same squad for quite some time now.

Madara went briefly to the capital in the late autumn to present Shirakami to the Daimyo on Shichi-Go-San –much to Adatara's very vocal disappointment, as she had wanted to go too– but whatever plans Kita had initially entertained had by then been comprehensively foiled by little Ashitaka's persistent refusal to sleep at night.

His own clan have thankfully been appropriately subdued since his presentation of Madara's edict, to the point that he's had markedly fewer parental complaints over children choosing non-warrior specialties. He's grateful for it; he has quite enough other things to be getting on with.

Most of his remaining students, the ones whose shinobi training he has seen to personally for the past five years, stayed on for another full year at the Academy rather than graduating on their respective birthdays. He hopes it was as much out of camaraderie with their peers as to learn as much as possible from him before graduating; he has put a lot of time and work into instilling a sense of the wider group and encouraging his now-teenage students to think about the needs and hopes of their fellow warriors as much as about their own strengths and weaknesses.

Tobirama feels it is a triumph that less than half his students will be taking missions and training with the Outguard now they have left his care. Uchiha Tokimi is of course joining the police force as long-promised, but with her are Shimura Danzō, Akimichi Torifu and Inuzuka Hara; he's sure they'll do excellently well. Uchiha Hatsu, Senju Sesshama, Nara Shizue and Mitokado Homura all left for apprenticeships before they were thirteen –in medicine, pottery, arboriculture and fūinjutsu respectively– and are doing very well in them; of those remaining, only Uchiha Otofuke, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Inuzuka Kegawa and Utatane Koharu seem set on completing a full mission career. The other three, Uchiha Kagami, Uchiha Omusha and Shiranui Nao, simply want a few years' mission experience before moving on to other careers like teaching, intelligence and logistics, where an understanding of what can go wrong in the field is a fundamental prerequisite.

He will not be taking on another class in the coming year; he needs a break from teaching and the Academy curriculum could do with an overhaul now that he has experienced for himself its strengths and weaknesses. The class he could have taken on will instead be taught by Uchiha Kagutsuchi, who has grown into a very kind and supportive young man and has retired from the Outguard this winter so as to spend more time in the village with his new wife, Sayomi. Sayomi is one of those rare Uchiha with a dual affinity; she is as much Wind as Fire, which she attributes to her father having been from Wind Country.

Kita explained to him later that Sayomi was orphaned very young because her parents were part of the Uchiha Clan's previous trading branch, which made him feel rather uncomfortable for a day or two. He is not often reminded that he was a significant contributor to the still-unbalanced population dynamic of the Uchiha –those over the age of forty-five can be listed by name in not much time at all despite the clan numbering around eight-hundred these days– and despite their welcoming him without hesitation, it still trips him up.

Still, a very good year. Unrest continues in Water Country, but now it's mainly various more scattered and rebellious clans against the daimyo's forces; following Madara's little pirate-hunting stint there the winter before last a whole lot of clans all promptly aligned themselves with the Water Daimyo, and there is a surprisingly coherent unification effort going on. Or possibly just a very well coordinated pirate-chasing effort; either way, the whole area is very swiftly becoming pacified and a few weeks ago news came in that the Kaguya Clan had finally been forced to submit. Tobirama's not sure what shape a peace in Water Country will have, but he is sure that Madara will be interested in taking at look at it sooner or later.

He's less sure what's going on in Wind –the stories coming out of the desert are far less coherent– but that will become clearer over time. Whatever it is seems to be more political than anything else, so will hopefully not spill over into violence.

Madara sits on the engawa, sipping his tea and enjoying the snow falling lightly on the garden in the growing dusk. Winter is drawing in and the weather is cold, but he has chakra to keep him warm and he can hear the laughter of his children in the house behind him.

It has been a challenging year. Ashitaka finally stopped being loudly nocturnal in June, sleeping through the night first every night in three, then one in two, and by August settling into a clear routine of waking for a few hours in the middle of the night to demand attention before falling asleep again.

The new routine is a great relief, even with the necessary midnight walks around the house. Tobirama takes on that duty whenever he is sharing the bedroom with them, leaving Madara and Kita with a stretch of delightfully uninterrupted privacy to indulge each-other with. Madara felt the fog of exhaustion finally lift in late November; it is not so different from the aftermath of a long military campaign, if thankfully lacking in short-notice deaths and funerals.

Tobirama shares their futon every other night now. Madara can't decide if he's amused or exasperated that Tobirama keeps trying to not impose on them despite their having made it very clear he's not an imposition. Never mind that the man very clearly wants to stay every night. Perhaps not in his head, but his blood and soul have settled and for a shinobi so tightly bound to a summons contract, it's a little exasperating how determined Tobirama is to ignore his instincts.

Madara's been delegating emotional matters to his instincts –mostly, sometimes words are necessary– since he was fifteen. As his father's Heir he had far too much to be thinking about, so learned to trust himself and move with his preferences. Kita has taught him a lot about double-checking that those instincts are healthy, but other than taking a few days every quarter-year to make sure he's not being unhealthily avoidant about important things he mostly lets his heart carry him, leaving his head free to lead the Outguard.

It was his instincts that demanded he curl up around Kita to sleep whenever she was within sensory range, and he stopped fighting that almost as soon as she was able to convince him that she really had no objections whatsoever. Tobirama's instincts have made the same decision –for much the same reasons that Madara's did back then, most likely; she feels safe– but the current Senju Head is still fighting the change.

Madara is leaving him to lose that battle in his own time. No matter how lightly the man may sleep elsewhere, when sprawled on their futon with them he may as well be comatose. Not-so-small children invading the bedroom over nightmares, occasional nocturnal summons to the mission offices for emergency decision-making, his wife deciding that the pre-dawn quiet is an excellent moment for a little surreptitious intimacy; Tobirama sleeps through all of it with eyelids fluttering and a soft rumble in his throat that is not quite a snore. The only thing that wakes him is Ashitaka's whimpering as she works herself up for a good scream, which has him up and purring as he rocks the baby almost before Madara realises there's anything amiss.

Tobirama's also a surprisingly mobile sleeper; he is never in the same place on waking up as he is when he falls asleep, sometimes draped sideways across Kita and Madara under the covers, others jammed in between them like a particularly insistent cat, and others still he somehow manages to move right over both of them, starting the evening back-to-back with Madara and getting up in the middle of the night from Kita's other side. It's ridiculous and impossible and strangely endearing all at once. Well, it became so once Madara got over his jealousy that, no matter how ridiculously contorted the sleeping position, Tobirama never suffers any ill-effects. It's like his spine is made of water!

Adding another two children to the household is a very small price to pay for having an additional full-time parent available; the children tend to go after whichever one is closest when they need something, so now Ashitaka has settled into a proper sleeping routine both he and Kita are finding there is a little more free time in their schedules than there was before. Madara is using that time to properly divide out his various responsibilities in the hope of being able to separate out 'Outguard Head duties' from 'Amaterasu Head duties' for his sons; if the transitions towards peace in the longer term continues, then the Amaterasu Head would be the peacetime leader whose focus was political and diplomatic, while the Outguard Head would be the military leader responsible for shinobi missions, intelligence and setting clan policy.

Obihiro is now Head of the clan's trading branch, which is fully independent of the Outguard despite intersecting with it in several places –traders need a few years' experience in the Outguard and must all be of age– so Madara is no longer responsible for that aspect of the clan's income. He does have to meet regularly with Obihiro –well generally with Kakuzu who runs the money side of things– to take part in the choices of what will be traded where and how to deal with new clients and their requests, because as Outguard Head he has to decide the clan's overall direction, but that's not much compared to what he used to be doing.

Of course if he does do that, then he will need to train up a son for the new position. Mitama is taking to preliminary Homeguard responsibilities like a fledgling hawk finally allowed to soar and Shirakami is showing considerable promise in the early thinking exercises for Outguard tasks as well as in his kanji, so that is those two positions all-but-confirmed, but Madara still isn't sure what to do about the as-yet theoretical role of Amaterasu Head. They would be taking over the work that Izuna does and likely have more of a presence at court than Madara personally has time for, so training up one of the girls could work… except that Sukumo is already most of the way through her fūinjutsu apprenticeship and loves genjutsu too much to set it aside for politics and Adatara is very blatantly her mother's successor in patchwork coats. Only recently turned eight and already being allowed to help with the piecing; Kita is very proud and Madara cannot be any less so.

Takahara is the obvious candidate, but Madara doesn't want to presume on his eldest there. Now almost fifteen years old his firstborn looks more like Tajima every day as he grows, but unlike Father, Takahara is fascinated by the clan's archives and has spent the past three years eagerly apprenticed to Yamizo-sensei, using the privilege of being Amaterasu and Madara's firstborn to copy out the older letters and journals in the clan archives in an attempt to reconcile them against civilian records and provide the Uchiha with a more coherent grasp of their own history.

Madara approves of the project. In fact he loves what his son is doing, loves that Takahara so clearly finds joy in the work and most of all is deeply grateful that his firstborn does not mind in the slightest that he has been passed over for leadership of their clan. However now that his son is older he can see that Takahara would be very good at courtly negotiation, his lesser interest in the personal in favour of the theoretical enabling him to dance through the proprieties without losing his temper like his younger brothers would.

He is planning to talk to Izuna first, for a second opinion –although in truth he already knows what Izuna will say– and then after Takahara's birthday he will have to sit his son down and explain what it is the clan needs. Madara knows already that if he asks his son will say yes; Takahara takes his duties very seriously. However he hopes that his eldest will be able to find joy in the necessity.

Finishing his tea as the light fades, Madara opens the shōji and quickly slides back into his wife's sitting room, where she is painting by the light of her fūinjutsu lanterns as Takahara quietly reads aloud to a fascinated and gently rocking Yukino and Adatara sews, the shōji leading into the reception room pushed wide open with Tobirama lying on his stomach across the threshold, Ashitaka sprawled across his lower back and fast asleep despite the cheers and complaints of Sukumo, Mitama, Makuma and Shirakami all playing the fish game under 'Bira-ji's eye.

His home is full of children, his wife is happy and much as he misses his own not-quite-brother, his wife's has filled a gap in their lives neither had really acknowledged the existence of. Life is good.

It is an unsettled spring. Not in Fire Country, thankfully, but in the vassal nations between and beyond Wind and Earth and in the archipelagos south of Water. Konohagakure picks up a lot of caravan-guarding missions through contested territory, to protect the goods from bandits and looters as much as from 'confiscation' by loyalists, insurgents, defenders and invaders alike, and Kita watches her husband wrestling with the responsibility of knowing how many of these fights are likely to end and the challenge of not interfering with those nations' sovereignty.

Various daimyo write to her husband to hire Uchiha to put down uprisings; Madara sends police squads and investigation teams rather than warriors, and after that the requests tail off sharply. Not-lethal capture of insurgents and a clear revelation of why they are rebelling is not what those rulers had in mind at all, for all that they are too wary of the Uchiha to withhold pay when the contracts have been fulfilled to the letter. Requests do not however cease entirely; one daimyo hires an investigation team specifically to determine which of his nobles are plotting treason and that coup collapses before it really gets moving at all.

Kita suspects that a good part of the unrest is due to the Fire Daimyo dying just as winter turned to spring, after a short battle with an illness that she suspects was cancer. His son, the new Fire Daimyo, is past thirty and a very capable politician with two small sons of his own already, but he is not his father. Murasaki-dono continues at court with quiet aplomb as befitting her new position as dowager, but her husband's death means the marriages of both her youngest son and eldest daughter –as well as those of a few of her late husband's concubines' daughters– have to be postponed to allow for a proper mourning period.

The Uchiha have long since stopped delaying marriages over deaths, but they also see nothing wrong with wearing mourning tokens at weddings. Life and death coexist at all times and the clan sees no shame in it.

With the new daimyo comes the challenge of proper address; Madara is a decade older than his nominal liege-lord, so is due a degree of respect as an elder as well as a senior noble. Madara has also seen the younger man at court on multiple occasions while he was learning his responsibilities, so there is also a measure of familiarity; just as Kita is somewhat familiar with his wife Tsuru-ko, a distant cousin of Fire Country's ruling clan's main line and an heiress in her own right.

Hidenari-dono is a quiet and clever man with his mother's charm, but he lacks his father's charismatic authority and military prowess. Tsuru-ko is also a lovely lady, but for all her clear-sightedness and beauty she lacks her mother-in-law's knack for commanding the attention of a room simply by stepping into it. Her sons are very sweet, aged seven and three, but Kita suspects Tsuru-ko has had difficulties either conceiving or carrying to term to have produced only two children in almost a decade of marriage; difficulties which are likely to continue. Still, she has secured Fire Country's succession, so nobody can speak out against her. Well, not publically; there are always dissenting voices, generally from those dissatisfied with their lot and enviously longing for advancement. That too is human nature and few are gracious in defeat when it comes to court politics.

The complex dance of fealty and precedence between the Uchiha and the Fire Daimyo is important to national and international peace, not just for the relationship between their respective clans. She and Madara dress in their most sumptuously formal outfits for the official elevation of Kurahashi Hidenari of the Abe clan to the position of Daimyo of Fire Country, taking along the Heads of all the other Lineages and a suitably well-dressed entourage. Izuna represents the Amaterasu Lineage, Kita wears for the first and likely only time the gloriously excessive jūnihitoe that marks her as Toyotama Head –she is not a warrior so cannot be a 'general' despite her Mangekyō– and the daimyo manages not to flinch at the line-up of attentively spinning red eyes as the Uchiha Clan step up before all others –including the daimyo's own younger brothers– to reaffirm their oaths.

Kita was glad when the pomp and pageantry were over; she is pregnant and while Hidenari-dono's ascension took place just as she was starting to show, she suspects she may have miscalculated the conception date given how her chakra started pooling a good ten days earlier than she was expecting it to. That would imply she's currently closer to six months pregnant than five, but given how that really does not line up with her previous menstruation pattern she's decided to see Yori about it. Then again, she is a lot rounder than she should be at this stage…

She's thirty-eight now, so her fertility cycle is expected to be a bit wobbly even though she is nowhere near menopausal just yet. Having a medic check up on things is mainly for her own peace of mind; she hasn't had a baby die yet, although there was an almost-pregnancy between Mitama and Shirakami that was lost early enough that she doesn't really think it counts as a miscarriage.

It's the end of April, Ashitaka will soon be having her second birthday –her vigorous little parakeet now shrieks only in joy and is infinitely curious– her husband is currently teaching nine-year-old Shirakami sword forms and Tobirama is out in the woods somewhere, teaching Yukino to forage and track with his leopards. Her older children are all at their morning lessons in the village, bar Takahara who is apprenticing to Izuna in courtly politics and therefore taking tea with the Aburame today, so she can see Yori without her family fretting unnecessarily.

"Your chakra pooled early? And you didn't mention it?"

"It was right as we were planning for the trip to the capital, Yori; all I was thinking about was how it would affect our travel arrangements," Kita says dryly as the medic delicately prods her chakra coils. "I didn't really consider the timing aspect until well into our stay, then promptly dismissed it as something for later."

"Well 'later' has arrived," Yori agrees tartly, "and there's nothing particular wrong with your system that I can see, but early chakra pooling can be a symptom of your body compensating for other pregnancy difficulties. Which then lurk invisibly until the stress of labour becomes too much for it, and it crashes."

Kita feels an icy shiver up her spine; she is much the same age now as her mother was when she died. Is this why nobody noticed anything until it was too late to help?

"I'm going to draw a little blood for those seal-tests Ruchishi came up with as his mastery project," Yori continues briskly, citing Kita's former student who is currently pushing back the boundaries of knowledge in biology and medicine. He's a Mizuhame and approaches the human body much as his cousin Koma approaches armour: determined to know every detail of its manufacture, purpose and function, so that he might better care for and repair it.

The seal-tests are very handy because Ruchishi has managed to set their baseline as 'what this body needs,' so adding a drop of blood provides a long row of variables that are either on, above or below the 'acceptable' range for the medics to then interpret. It tests for vitamins, trace elements, blood sugar levels and a myriad of other things Kita has no words for but that the medics can decipher just fine.

Kita is not a medic. She's never made a study of it in either lifetime and tries not to make assumptions based on past knowledge, because adding an entire new circulatory system for chakra means anatomy likely works very differently to what she's used to.

Unless chakra runs through the lymph system –no, better not to speculate.

After the test has been performed Yori hums over the results for a good quarter-hour; Kita sketches out seal ideas in the meantime.

"Your blood pressure is a little high, but that's fairly normal at this stage," she says eventually, "and you've none of serious warning signs. However this," she taps one of the little lines, "is lower than I'd like. How much sex have you been having with your husband recently, Kita?"

Kita huffs. What with the trip to the capital, the unrest and her husband now tutoring two of their sons in various aspects of his duties, there has been less time for that of late. Unfortunately. However this pregnancy has not enhanced her libido as much as some previous ones have, so she hasn't really been paying attention.

"Not so much, hm?" Yori says knowingly. "Tell him to make time, medic's orders," she grins wickedly, "and be aware that swallowing his seed is documented to have the best effect."

Madara will go red and splutter, even if she tells him that in private. He's not as acutely body-conscious as he was when they first started exploring physical intimacy, but for all he's built up a tolerance to the physical act and to her poetry, he cannot talk about it in explicit terms unless at least mildly intoxicated. She will have to get the sake out.

Her check-up over, Kita remains a while longer to chat and hear about what her friend's children have been up to lately. Tokimi's police training is going very well, Sachimi is fourteen and has chosen how elemental specialisation affects the body as her medical focus, Kōki is doing well both at the Academy and in his Yatagarasu studies, and Kichō is a remarkably well-behaved two-year-old. Yori admits laughingly that she knows it won't last, so she is enjoying it while she can.

There is a knock on the open shōji and then Yukino leans around to wave.

"Hi Yori-ba, Ba-sama!"

"Hello Yukino-chan," Yori says warmly. "Is it just you visiting me?"

"Tō is here too!" Yukino announces brightly. "He said Ba-sama was here so we came to see!"

On cue Tobirama steps into view with a polite nod. "Yori-san, Kita." He stopped attaching honorifics to her name on the second day after Madara assigned him technical house arrest in the Uchiha Clan Hall, which is fair enough; using honourifics for somebody you're sharing a futon with is a bit much. His hair is also rather longer, but he keeps it neatly bundled up in a topknot rather than leaving it loose to frame his face like a lion's mane. His red facial markings are bright, but that is likely because he has been out in the woods with his daughter; they will thin and fade as he settles again and stops leaning so heavily on his sensing. She hadn't realised they did that until three months into his now-permanent residence with them.

"Are you coming in, Yukino-chan?" Yori asks. "I have new medicines for you to smell."

Enthused by the prospect of smell-testing –a favourite game for young Hatake– Yukino sheds her sandals and bounces into the large, airy surgery.

"I shall take your Ba-sama home, mushroom," Tobirama says, waiting for his daughter's nod before letting his eyes rest on Kita. Kita's always been amused by that nickname, both for the Hatake connection and because in the language of this world, 'mushroom' is written –and pronounced– as 'tree-baby'.

Kita gets up, waves goodbye to Yori over Yukino's gloriously floofy pigtails and heads out to the genkan for her sandals; Tobirama waits patiently for her on the path and falls into step beside her, shortening his pace to match hers. He looks… less tense than he did this morning, somehow.

Wait.

"You knew something was wrong?"

Tobirama shifts. "I suspected something might be amiss," he hedges as they turn a corner. "You smell… off. Not ill exactly, but faintly strained even considering your condition. I was going to suggest Yori if it persisted for a full week."

Kita is reminded once more that Tobirama has a Hatake nose, and that Hatake noses are nigh-supernatural in their sensitivity. Of course they have to be carefully trained –which apparently includes a chakra aspect– and familiarity with a wide range of scents is necessary for the information thus gleaned to mean anything, but Tobirama has all of that and more.

"Well Yori has examined me and prescribed treatment," Kita says, knowing he will inevitably be involved in her discussion with her husband. Well, that they will have to talk to him as well as each-other, seeing as he's in their bed half the time. He gets to have an opinion.

"Treatment?" Tobirama inquires as they turn into the new front gate to the Uchiha Clan Hall.

"I am apparently not having enough sex with my husband," Kita replies mildly as they approach the genkan.

Tobirama pauses, falling half a step behind as she changes out of her sandals and puts on her slippers. "Might the children accept my taking over reading to them at bedtime, do you think?" Bedtime stories are an important tradition for her children; it is important to her that they have them, the memories from her former lifetime insisting that they are necessary. Madara does most of the reading –which is often reciting myths, legends and clan history rather than reading per se– and visibly enjoys it.

Kita easily reads the nuances there –Tobirama wanting to give them space and time for intimacy without having to compromise on actually sleeping beside them– and hums. "Tonight certainly; I need to discuss matters with my husband." She considers it a little more. "Ask them if they'd like it? At least while I'm pregnant." That should get the older children in favour; Ashitaka needs no winning over whatsoever, as she's too young to verbalise an opinion on who reads and is currently cheerfully indifferent to which of the household's adult men is cuddling her so long as she gets hugs.

"I'll make sure they know it's so their father can take good care of you while you're expecting," Tobirama says, tone dry enough to shrivel kiwi-fruit on the vine as he puts on his own slippers.

Kita grins as she heads further into the house; in contrast to her husband, Tobirama has no trouble whatsoever discussing the practicalities and mechanics of sex. It's the romantic aspect –as well as the subtle dance of poetry and allusion as an expression of feeling rather than purely to arouse lust, adding an affectionately intimate underdone to the most innocent of exchanges– that makes him bristle like a startled cat and flee the room as fast as he can get away with.

Madara had been planning on being home in the early afternoon, but the bunraku caravan from Wind arrived four days early and with half again as many people as expected, so he had to send Shirakami back to the compound with almost-seventeen-year-old Nakano –Toyoni's youngest son from his first marriage, first cousin to Yari's late lover of the same name– so that a suitable kimono could be brought down while he washed and wrestled his hair into order.

Then there were gifts to be formally accepted, tea to be drunk and a long, complex conversation that wove in and out of bunraku dialect –which Madara is somewhat familiar with but knows he lacks a full command of the nuances therein– and came down to a clarification of various of the Wind Daimyo's new policies and additional details thereof. Namely that Shiba-dono, who has been daimyo of Wind for about five years now, has decided that he wants to unite the shinobi of Wind under his authority as Earth and Lightning have done and as Shimazu-dono of Water is in the process of achieving.

The difference being that Date-dono of Lightning has a martial genius of a brother to spearhead that project and quietly killed off an entire generation of independent shinobi to achieve it, the previous Tamura-dono of Earth simply took advantage of Ishikawa's respected status among his nation's shinobi and offered them something none of them could afford to refuse –guaranteed food year-round for all who swear oaths to him upon completing their training– and the daimyo of Water is a very warlike leader who is using this as an excuse to turn what was a loose collection of semi-independent vassal province-islands into a single unified nation under his sole authority.

Shiba-dono however rules a nation that is fundamentally hollow, a thin rind of arable land around a mosaic of arid scrub, sand dunes and parched rock, where the only people who venture into Wind's harsh and unpredictable interior are merchants hopping from oasis to oasis –the journey across being shorter and paradoxically safer than the long trek around the outside– and the native nomadic shinobi clans.

Wind has many different kinds of shinobi, all inhabiting the same space but rarely crossing paths. There are the wind-riders, who protect the caravans from sandstorms, the bunraku caravans who perform for all who can pay to see them, be it a cube of salt for a bench in a farming village or a sack of rice for a box in a fine theatre, the weavers whose cloth conducts chakra and repels sand, the dowsers who can always find water or the metal-singers whose techniques let them bring up valuable iron, silver and gold from the seemingly-barren sands. To unite them all under a single banner is terribly ambitious, especially in a nation where farmland is so marginal.

The shinobi of Wind travel because there is no land that will support them year-round. No matter where they might settle, to do so would be to become entirely dependent on their daimyo for food and condemn their children to that dangerous dependence forever, since those children would then not be raised in their traditional ways and therefore not know how to support themselves save by serving their daimyo's whims.

It is therefore not surprising that this caravan-master, a shrewd, weathered woman who has known the Uchiha for longer than Madara has been alive, has decided to turn to Konohagakure as a place to put down roots. Yes, they will then need documents and permissions to travel across Wind, but as citizens of Fire the Wind Daimyo will not be able to hinder them without risking far more than he would gain. Madara has already shown twice over what he is willing to do to daimyo who over-reach themselves by harming those in his care; Shiba-dono will not care to test him further.

Of course Shiba-dono will also hold a small grudge, but all things considered Madara prefers that to turning away the bunraku caravan who have been Uchiha allies for generations and making enemies of them. Wind's shinobi puppeteers make for tenacious and relentlessly patient enemies and Madara does not want to bestow such bitterness on his sons as an inheritance. He will stand by his allies, in this as he has in other things, and they shall proceed together in the face of those who would oppose them.

So he accepts the Ichikawa caravan into Konohagakure, selects a patch of land for them to lease at a modest annual rate and build a theatre on, ensures the names of every last individual are neatly written in the village's census records, from Chiho the caravan-master through her teenage grandchildren Chiyo and Ebizō right down to the toddlers. Then, his formal duties completed, he hands over to Yasakatone to see everyone settled and gratefully heads home for dinner. It is getting late, but he is not yet so late that Nari-chan and his wife will have already decided to feed the children without waiting for him.

The food is being served as he announces himself, a chorus of welcoming voices answering from around the iori. Madara crosses the reception room, closes the shōji behind him and settles into the space on his wife's right-hand side, accepting the full bowl and chopsticks that Tobirama passes to him.

Once everybody is served there is a chorus of, "Itadakimasu!" and then the eating begins, Sukumo helping Ashitaka with her spoon for the first few mouthfuls and making sure her little sister's bowl stays level.

Madara lets the smell of noodle soup and the sound of slurping unknot his muscles and soothe his mind. He is home, surrounded by his family; after eating he will talk to Kita about his day and then put the children to bed.

Except apparently not.

"Bira-ji's reading to us tonight, Chichi!" Mitama says earnestly, carefully passing his empty bowl to Nari, "so you can spend more time with Haha!"

Madara glances across at his wife, who meets his eyes steadily then lets her gaze drop, eyelashes dark curves against the pale gold of her skin. "It's true I have not been able to spend much time with your Okā-sama of late," he agrees easily. There will be plenty of talking time once the children are being tucked up into bed; the entire process takes the better part of two hours, from eight-year-old Adatara to thirteen-year-old Sukumo. Takahara is fifteen, old enough to decide his own bedtime and suffer the consequences of it, and Ashitaka is still a toddler, sleeping on a miniature futon in her parents' room. She will however be present for story time; she will no doubt fall asleep on Tobirama part-way through, as she always does on Madara, and her presence will ensure the older children keep the noise down and do not protest too much when it is time to be tucked in.

"So what have you been doing today, Adatara?" Madara asks, settling in to dote on his children until story-time. He always starts with the youngest children, because they have to go to bed first, and takes care not to exclude anybody no matter how 'boring' they declare their day to have been. It is not about what they have done; it is about their knowing that he cares about them and is always willing to listen. Normally he would do this later, but seeing as he will not be reading to them he needs to do it now.

His second-youngest daughter immediately launches into an excited monologue about the Academy, which she has been attending for less than a month so is still excitingly new. She shares her class with Akimichi Shōri who is Chōkō's second son, Yamakana Inosuke's oldest daughter Inotsugi, Senju Ibara who is Tobirama's sister Keika's daughter, Senju Hashigi –some other warrior's son– Shimura Hokura, Kōsa's youngest son, little Hyūga Hiyake with her golden hair, blue-tinted eyes and pinkish, freckled skin, Hatake Suzu, Hatake Takeno and of course Kanmuri's son third Makoto, Midori's firstborn Kuro and Oshiki's second son Fushimi.

As Madara listens to his youngest he pays half an ear to Makuma's description of his lessons to his own father across the room; Makuma left the Academy early –at nine– to focus on calligraphy, literature and fūinjutsu. The calligraphy and literature he is learning from Yamizo-sensei; for fūinjutsu Tobirama's son is studying under Senju Mito, who is also teaching him to use the golden chakra chains he can conjure at will. Tobirama's son is very Uzumaki indeed.

"An' I was best at shuriken again, Chichi!"

Madara smiles at his happily vibrating daughter, ruffling her smooth hair. "Well done, little bird."

There are a lot of boys in Adatara's class –it just fell out that way, there were far more boys born that year than girls– and she loves proving to them that even though she's not going to become a shinobi, she's still better than them at lots of shinobi things. Senju Shibi-sensei –another of Tobirama's cousins via his aunt Rika– really has his hands full keeping them all in line, but he seems to be doing decently well.

As Adatara winds down Shirakami picks up, describing his own day at the Academy with his cousins Shinmoe and Kannon –Kannon is Naka-coatmaker's daughter– Hyūga Hidori-chan his rival in mathematics, geography and taijutsu, Nara Shizuka and Nara Naoki, Shiranui Daibei, Utatane Akihito, Imano Osamu –a good number of the Senju vassals have chosen surnames of their own in the fifteen years between the village's establishment and Tobirama finally decreeing that the clan name belongs to all those with a proven and documented blood relation to the main family, and most have chosen to keep those new names over declaring themselves Senju– Haruno Kishō –from another Senju vassal family– Hatake Mugino, Hatake Serori and Hatake Sukino, Aburame Hyaku, Aburame Yaga and Yūhi Momo.

Shirakami, having spent an entire year with his peers already, knows all of his classmates' names and many more names besides. Adatara will get there soon enough.

Mitama has lost just over half his class to apprenticeships this spring –seeing as twelve is the youngest that most masters are prepared to take unrelated children on– but is happy to talk about Senju Menka along with Hijiri's son Nōtori, who are both still learning alongside him, and Sarutobi Etsu, Shimura Tomoe and Kurama Shinonome. All girls except for Mitama and Nōtori, but his son seems to be enjoying himself thoroughly.

Sukumo is now in her final year at the Academy and contemplating her future opportunities, although Madara suspects that she will wind up doing something fūunjutsu-related. She is technically a seal-master already, her genjutsu seals being used in Konohagakure's theatres for simulated scenery of locations both real and imaginary. There are many marvellous variations on such seals that would be very marketable, 'view-boxes' of famous locations for instance, but Madara is holding off talking about that. They don't need the money and his quiet, steady daughter –who reminds him terribly of his mother when she isn't reminding him of Ohabari-oba– should be allowed to do as she wishes with her life.

By the time it is Takahara's turn Shirakami and Adatara have been read to and tucked into bed alongside Yukino and Makuma, and Tobirama has returned to fetch Mitama and Sukumo for their own bedtime, Ashitaka flopped over his shoulder like a little sack of rice, fast asleep.

Takahara however has been spending the past however-long talking to his mother about his visit to the Aburame. "No, Chichi, I'm going to join Sukumo and Mitama for story-time," he says earnestly. "You spend time with Haha."

Takahara is likely then going to stay up another few hours in his little study, reading by seal-light, so Madara lets him go and turns his attention to his wife, whom he really hasn't been spending as much time with as he probably should of late. What with the politics and all.

"Wife," he says softly as their oldest son closes the shōji to the children's wing behind him.

"Husband," Kita says in return, eyes fond and a hint of humour in her tone. "Come and join me in my room for a little while?"

The futon in his wife's bedroom is freshly made-up; there is also a small table with a bottle of sake and a single cup. Madara eyes it, amused and rueful.

"Why exactly does my wife want to get me drunk tonight?" It's very evident she intends to seduce him –privately, so that no matter when Tobirama returns from tucking in the children he will not disturb them– but she doesn't need to get him drunk for that. He is ever at her disposal.

His wife smiles at him and pours the sake. "I went to see Yori today."

Madara instantly accepts the cup and takes a sip. He is better at bearing the uncertainty of her pregnancies now than he was when she was expecting Takahara, but he will never have his wife's grace in accepting what cannot be controlled or predicted.

"My health is still good, but she feels precautions need to be taken against potential complications," Kita continues as he takes another large sip, almost draining the cup.

"What kind of precautions, beloved?" If it was just diet she wouldn't need to take him aside like this, clearly it is something she needs his help with.

His wife smirks at him, all bright mischief. "We need to have more sex, husband," she says bluntly.

Madara feels himself go hot and scarlet and can barely stifle the faintly hysterical giggle bubbling up in his throat; he finished his sake and pours himself another cupful. "Is that all, guiding star?" He manages, voice shaking slightly; he takes another long swallow to steady himself. "That will no trouble at all, I promise. You didn't need to get me drunk for that." Although the alcohol is definitely helping him to overlook his wife's mortifying bluntness.

Kita's smirk turns dark and wicked. "The medical recommendation is that I swallow your seed, husband," she says huskily, demure posture in stark contrast to her shameless language, "So since I plan to lay you out on my bed and have my way with you, I thought it best to lower your inhibitions first."

Madara drops the sake cup, mind going utterly blank as it rolls off his lap, leaving a damp stain behind. His wife grins at him, the uncomfortably knowing expression that inspires trepidation as much as desire. His pulse pounds in his ears.

"Strip for me, husband," she demands sweetly, eyes crinkled up happily and still smiling that gloriously confident tiger smile.

Madara instantly unknots his obi, sets it aside and makes swift work of his hakama before standing so as to more easily finish undressing; with his wife looking at him like that, what can he do but comply?

Then his wife gets up to push him down onto the futon and settles over his calves, bending down to press a wet kiss to the fold of his hip without breaking eye-contact, and coherency abandons him entirely in favour of paralysing lust.

Tobirama wakes to the dawn and somebody kicking him in the face. Seeing as his cheek is resting against the curve of Kita's abdomen, that's not so surprising; she is approaching the seventh month of pregnancy now, not all that long to go until giving birth, and the baby is growing well. If he closes his eyes and listens he can hear the rabbit-fast beating of its heart.

It's a soothing sound, regardless of the little kicks against his jaw and upper chest, with the slower but still swift counterpoint of Kita's heartbeat. She smells better now than she did just a month ago; still strained –pregnancy is strenuous– but that faintly sour edge that made him nervous for no reason he could pin down has gone.

Except... now he's really listening, there's a faint echo. The quicker beat is not quite even: it stumbles and flutters. Frowning, Tobirama shifts slightly to listen from a different angle.

Again, that faint echo. But different now. Opening his eyes, Tobirama carefully untangles his legs from Madara's and crawls over Kita, sliding out from under the sheet and off the futon.

"Tobira?" Kita twists, eyes fluttering open a crack as she tips her head back to look at him. "Wrong?"

Tobirama opens his mouth to say that nothing's specifically wrong when Madara levers himself up from where his face was buried in his pillow to grunt inquiringly; Tobirama can lie convincingly to one or other of the two, but not to both at once because they look for different cues and he can't fake all of them.

"Kita, may I use my chakra to look at the baby?" He asks instead. The fluid in the womb is not water alone, but it is mostly water so it responds well enough to his chakra. He can see every fish in a river when he trickles his chakra into it, can feel the shape of the riverbed and all the ways the current flows.

Madara squints suspiciously at him. "Why?"

Tobirama goes with honesty. "I do not believe there is anything wrong," he says firmly, "but it would reassure me." It's… hard, seeing Kita pregnant when his mother died of complications so much younger than she is now. He knows in his head that this is probably some pregnancy thing that he's simply never been told about because he is a man and was only very briefly married, but his gut is uneasy.

The way Kita looks at him is warm and gentle and so knowing that Tobirama feels flayed down to his bones. "Husband?" she asks, gaze steady on Tobirama's face.

Madara groans and drops his face back into the pillow. "Whatever pleases you, wife," emerges, muffled but comprehensible.

Kita smiles, light and fond and sweet. "There you go then," she says, propping herself up on her elbows and shifting around until she is sitting more or less upright, knees splayed in a way that would leave her nemaki gaping had it not been specifically stitched with extra panels to accommodate her pregnancies.

Tobirama kneels on the floor facing her, reaches out –glances at her face again to check she really doesn't mind– and carefully lays his palms lightly against the sides of the swell of her belly. Evidently this is going to be another big baby, as she's already very large and still two months off giving birth.

Kita's chakra is hot and dense under his fingertips, but it parts like smoke to let his own pass through unimpeded; her trust humbles him. Tobirama's still not entirely sure how he earned that trust, but he always does his best to prove himself worthy of it. Once past the layer of skin and stretched muscle his chakra finds fluid, spreading like ink to fill the space.

Two spaces, a double layer of membrane dividing them. Two heartbeats, a mere fraction of a second out of sync. Two tiny bodies, each wriggling energetically in its fluid-filled bubble and batting at each-other as much as at the outside world.

A tiny boy-child, small enough easily to hold in one hand, and a matching tiny girl-child.

Tobirama carefully withdraws his chakra –all of it– removes his hands and sits back on his heels.

"Everything alright?" His face must be doing something odd, as Kita looks both fond and faintly concerned.

"Yes, everything's fine," Tobirama manages. "I, I just…" What does he say? Should he say anything? Considering Kita's mother died bringing her twin sisters into the world it might be better not to. At least not to her; he could tell Yori? "So small, still," he manages.

Kita's concerns softens and fades away. "Oh yes. Plenty of growing yet to do to be healthy," she agrees warmly, one hand cradling her belly. Her eyes sharpen. "You could tell me whether I'm having a boy or a girl, couldn't you?"

"Do you want me to tell you?" Tobirama wouldn't know which to pick –the certainty of being both right and wrong and the possible repercussions of that are fairly daunting– but if she does ask, he will pick one.

"No," Kita decides after a pause. "It makes less of a difference to the names than I like to think it does; I picked Ashitaka for a boy but it fitted her better than any of the girls' names I considered. I won't know which name works until I meet them in person, so I just need to be patient." She grins, quick and bright. "Keep it a secret, please."

"I promise." He can tell Yori that Kita is expecting fraternal twins without disclosing gender. Yori will then be forewarned and able to take appropriate care of her patient.

"Now, since my husband is clearly not getting up just yet" –behind Kita Madara makes a grumbling sound but does not stir from where he is sprawled limply across the other side of the futon– "perhaps you might help me to my feet so I can go wash before the children decide it is breakfast time."

Ashitaka's miniature futon is currently on Madara's side of the bed –Madara apparently insists on moving it there whenever Kita is pregnant so she can get to the kitchen or the bathroom in the night, or even just dash out throw up in the bucket on the engawa without tripping over a toddler– and the little girl is not awake yet, so Tobirama is all in favour of a quiet start to the day. No matter how very early it must be; they can nap later, when the sun is high and the air becomes stifling.

"Will you cook breakfast today?"

Kita pauses by the shōji. "Actually, I might."

Well, that is a good sign.

With how many things her baby has been doing early, Kita now has a strong suspicion it may well be born early as well. She is not due until the middle of August –and has given birth as much as ten days later than due before– but so far her earliest baby has been Shirakami, who arrived fifteen days before he was supposed to. Premature yes, but not dangerously so; it is when a baby is more than a month early that complications begin to arise, and two months early is when chances of survival dip discouragingly low. Benten had been six weeks early and her survival still strikes Kita as miraculous.

Infant care is much better now than it was when Kita was a child, her many seals helping to create clean and warm spaces for these babies to sleep in and Yori's medical Yin jutsu proving far more effective than the Senju's Yang-based one for shoring up newborn bodies and reminding them how to work, but they still lose babies now and then. Kita counts herself blessed to have not lost a single child, and prays every day that she will not lose this one.

June is neither her favourite nor her least-favourite month; it is when the heat starts to get uncomfortable and it is acceptable to wear unlined kimono, but is not as stifling as July or August. Being heavily pregnant in June is however sticky and exhausting even in an unlined kimono, so much so that Kita is already dreading July. Well, she is actually trying very hard not to borrow trouble, but it creeps up on her. Thankfully this is the third summer the Hyūga have been in Konoha, so things are far less fractious and chaotic than they were two years ago, or even just last year.

At the end of March over half the Hyūga Branch House leaves Konoha and heads east and south back to their clan lands, to oversee planting the paddy fields and help prepare other fields for summer vegetables. Most of the civilian vassals in their wider clan lands never actually left, but once food is planted the fields need to be guarded against banditry and pirates, so the Branch House travel to them to patrol the borders.

It is only the warriors and a number of the Nohara medics who leave, so the group is skewed towards men; the Branch House's women are responsible for caring for the Hyūga's silkworms –most of which were recovered, but a shortage of mature mulberry trees and no Hashirama to grow them in seconds means many eggs are still kept cold in storage for part of the year and their production has not bounced back from what it once was– and caring for their Main House kinsmen.

Kita suspects that the only reason the Hyūga are allowing their children to attend both Konohagakure's school and its shinobi academy is that so many of those children's parents are now either dead, variously maimed, or far too busy to do the teaching in-clan. Well, beyond teaching their children their signature taijutsu style and how to use their bloodline that is. Of their Main House there are exactly three Heads of Lineages who survived the pirate assault without serious injuries, and of those three only Hisaaki still has his spouse among the living. Another three Heads of Lineage are maimed, one blinded, one hamstrung and one both, and two more are dead, one replaced by a son who is not quite of age and will have to be careful of his right knee for the rest of his life, the other by a younger sister –Himiko, Hisaaki's late brother Hikage's wife– who also must care for her brother's three children in addition to her own.

Unlike the Uchiha, who have traditionally aimed for four or five children per couple regardless of standing, the Hyūga Main Lineages rarely have more than three children per couple and two is more common. Kita suspects this is so they are never so numerous as to dilute their power over the Branch House, but the problem with that now is that the Main House has barely half the able-bodied warriors it did before –most of the dead were teenagers or older adults– and one in four of the total survivors is in some way maimed. A good number of children have also died, and several of the variously crippled women –as well as a good number of Branch House women with more minor injuries– had children in the June after the Clan moved to Konoha.

Madara has made it clear in the village's charter that all children born on Uchiha land are counted as Konoha citizens no matter their parents' status, which –along with giving Madara undisputable authority over every last non-noble person born in the last sixteen years– means that the Hyūga Main House cannot brand their children of war and relegate them to the Branch House; unlike the Aburame and the Akimichi, the Hyūga do not own the land they currently reside upon. It also means that those children of the Branch House born on Uchiha land cannot have the Caged Bird Seal inflicted on them, which certain Branch Hyūga seem to be taking advantage of. Not that the Main House has quite caught on to that yet, but they do not place the seal on those younger than three years old –five is the usual age– so that is another year's grace at least, possibly more.

Kita has however noticed a trend in the names that Main House Hyūga have given to their war-born; yes, they could be written with the sun character as is traditional, but they sound like they should instead be written with the character for 'secret,' which is also pronounced 'hi' in compound words.

Hinagiku has named her son Hiden, Himiko has named her son Himitsu, Hyūga Hibi's young wife Himasa's son is Hiketsu and Hidomo, mother to Adatara's classmate Hiyake, has chosen Higi as her new daughter's name. The apparent consensus that these children are something to be concealed is… well. Kita does understand why. However labelling a child like that for something beyond their control is a bit much.

However the balance of the Hyūga clan is changing again and it is the newly-resident bunraku clan who are changing it. Hinagiku, sidelined by her husband for the injuries that make her unable to walk or see, has spent the past two years trying to regain what little independence she can while doing her best not to hate her unfortunate new son. Kita has been visiting her as regularly as possible, helping Hinaka find new ways to see to her mother's comfort and providing a suitably removed listening ear so that the Hyūga Heiress –who still limps, one tendon now being permanently shorter than the other– is able to express her feelings without censuring herself out of fear of causing offense.

Hinaka visits Kita at home every week, on the same day at the same time, with the same meticulous punctiliousness she shows in every other aspect of her life. Kita serves tea in the least formal ceremony, and then afterwards Hinaka talks –vents– and Kita listens supportively, occasionally offering comfort or advice if requested. Hinagiku certainly knows about these visits; Hisaaki may also, but Kita suspects he has little concept of what they mean. Hisaaki is wilfully ignorant of many things, so since he no doubt has assumptions about why his eldest visits her regularly, he is giving the matter no more thought at all.

Kita hadn't expected Hinagiku's response to hearing about the Ichikawa clan to be for the woman to firmly request an introduction to their headwoman, but once the request was made she could see how obvious a step it was; these were after all the puppeteers who had made Iō's foot and E's hands. Hinagiku's eyes cannot be replaced, but a frame that lets her control her uncooperative legs with chakra strings would be perfectly workable.

So Kita arranged the introduction back in April, and now almost two months on the changes are already in full swing: Hinaka has had experimental treatment on her shortened tendon and now wears an articulated steel brace to compensate for the hopefully temporary weakness created by stretching the tendon to match the undamaged one, several other Hyūga also have leg or arm braces –a few have resorted to outright amputation and prosthetic replacements– and Hinagiku is resolutely learning to puppet her lower legs using her chakra system, extruding chakra strings from her tenkutsu to operate the articulated exoskeleton she commissioned at that first meeting and gradually getting herself back into fighting shape.

Hisaaki seems to be finding his wife's determined clawing back of her mobility and independence somewhat alarming, from what various other people are keen to tell her. Including Hinaka herself.

"Oba-sama," the sixteen-year-old says after tea has been served, drunk and put away, "would you share your wisdom with me?"

"What is it you require wisdom for, Hinaka-kun?" Kita asks. Calling the Hyūga heiress 'chan' would be demeaning, so 'kun' it is.

Hinaka keeps her silvery eyes politely lowered, but her fingers flex over her elegantly greyscale kimono, the scar across one wrist faded but unmistakeable. Having seen a great many Hyūga react to her embroidered coats over the past two years, Kita suspects that the cost of their omni-directional sight is colour-blindness; they mainly wear white and shades of grey, foliage shape and texture is far more prominent than colourful flowers in their gardens and what flowers there are tend to be white or otherwise pale.

She hasn't commented on it; it's definitely not her business. However she's equally sure that there's at least three Hyūga she's met who aren't colour-blind, seeing as they do seem to favour discreet yet vibrant accessories most of their fellow clansmen appear oblivious to. However those specific Hyūga are all in civilian roles in the Branch House, so it may be that seeing in colour makes for a serious disadvantage when you see so much.

"I am my father's heir," Hinaka says precisely, "and I have a duty to him, but I am also my mother's daughter and have a duty to her. My mother is regaining her mobility; this is a good thing. But my father…" she trails off.

"Your honoured mother has always been a very spirited and strong-willed woman," Kita says gently. "She has strong feelings about your clan and their welfare."

Hinaka nods firmly. "She does. She has well-reasoned thoughts and views." The implication being, that her father's are less well-defined.

Kita waits.

"My father," Hinaka frowns, "he mourned my mother. And then when we got her back, he didn't visit much. He made sure she was comfortable and had servants, but he didn't come to see her. He started training Haruki instead. Even after Hiden-chan was born and weaned."

"How is Haruki-kun doing?" Kita asks mildly. She won't ask after little Hiden; Hinaka has very mixed feelings about her toddler brother, whose hair is dusty brown and spiky rather than dark and smooth and whose pale eyes are tinged with gold rather than grey or lilac.

Hinaka purses her lips. "He is improving well," she decides, "but he is still overconfident and lacks focus."

Compared to Hinaka herself, Kita believes most children would lack focus. Hinaka is intensely focused and according to Hinagiku always has been. Haruki is more normal in that respect, and little boys are frequently overconfident. "He still has much growing to do," is all she actually says though.

"That is true," Hinaka agrees thoughtfully.

"Perhaps you could spar with him more?" Kita suggests. "I am sure you could help him improve." Sparring with his far more capable older sister will also give Hyūga Haruki a more realistic understanding of how far he will have to go if he ever wishes to beat her; clearly the boy forgets that Hinaka killed fully-grown shinobi aged just fourteen. Yes, she was eventually injured and then defeated, but that was while defending her younger brothers, the elder of whom was a limp corpse.

Hinaka is not what her clan would call a prodigy, but relentless perfectionism has a certain undeniable quality of its own. It is also good for her to spend time with her younger brother.

"I will consider it. Might I admire your seal again today, Oba-sama?"

Hinaka means the Hands-Off seal. "Of course you may, Hinaka-kun. I will fetch the scroll." Poking at the seal once it is on a person is profoundly perilous if you do not have permission to do so, and anyway Hinaka prefers the poetry and allusion of the uncompressed design to the more hands-on method of probing an active seal and trying to get a feel for its shape.

There are multiple unapologetically lethal fail-safes built into the Hands-Off seal, because anybody attempting to bypass it –either directly by seeking to unravel its structure or indirectly through either genjutsu deception or violent coercion– deserves to suffer the consequences of that. Kita was in fact inspired by the Hyūga's Gentle Fist in her primary fail-safe; attempting to disrupt the seal releases an explosive yin-yang chakra pulse that targets the crown chakra gate in the brain of everybody not wearing the seal within a twenty-metre radius. Anybody experiencing that would be lucky to drop dead; ruptured chakra coils, paralysis and localised haemorrhaging are equally possible, dragging out death over minutes or even hours.

Hinaka calls it 'elegantly appropriate;' Kita knows the Hyūga Main House desperately want her Hands-Off seal, but she is pretending obliviousness until they concede to changing the seals on the Branch House as well. She will not be party to oppression, and allowing the Main House to use her seal without insisting that the Caged Bird Seal be purged from their records would result in an even greater divide between the two halves of the Hyūga Clan.


	17. Chapter 17

Madara wakes suddenly to a distressed wife, slimy bedding and dim pre-dawn light.

"It's too _early_ –it's too _soon_ Tobirama _please_ – not even Shira-kun was _this_ early–"

"Breathe," Tobirama demands, the front of his thin summer nemaki clinging to his chest due to being soaked through and his hair a wild, messy halo around his shoulders. "The babies are _fine_ Kita, I _promise_. Small yes, but they're both healthy and the proper way up and they don't have anywhere _left_ to grow, there's not the space. Breathe!"

Madara abruptly realises what's going on; but Kita isn't due to give birth until _next_ month! Toshi and Azami only turned twenty two days ago!

Cool, liquid chakra hits him like a bucket of water to the face; Tobirama is glaring at him. "No panicking," he demands flatly.

Right. No panicking. It won't help Kita. "Can I _do_ anything?" Madara doesn't know _anything_ about the birth process! Not that is _helpful!_

"Kneel up so she can lean on you."

Madara quickly does so, balling up the wet sheets and tossing them down to the far end of the futon; he can't do anything about the wet patch actually _on_ the futon but that's a problem for the laundresses later. His wife keens through her teeth, fingers digging into his forearms so harshly that he belatedly has to reinforce bone and muscle with chakra. He's going to have some impressive bruising after this…

"I'm getting Yori," Tobirama announces, then the shōji to the engawa are open and he's gone.

"Husband?"

Madara worriedly meets his wife's eyes, sharingan igniting for additional clarity in the gloom. "Yes, wife?"

"Tobirama said _babies_."

Madara pauses. "So he did."

Kita grits her teeth through another contraction and gasps for breath afterwards. "I am having _twins_ and he _knew_ and _didn't tell me_!"

Yes that is a very reasonable complaint, although Madara suspects he knows _why_ Tobirama kept his mouth shut. "You can bite his arm off later, breathe first," he reminds her, letting his sharingan subside.

"Oh I _will_ ," Kita says softly, voice level and full of all the intent her chakra lacks. "He has it _coming_ –"

Then Yori arrives with Sachimi, Yōko right behind them, and he is firmly thrown out of the bedroom.

Tobirama's there waiting by the iori, still in his damp nemaki. "Kita's going to bite your arm off after," Madara tells him blankly; there's nothing to hear on this side of the sealed shōji, no agitated chakra to sense. The children are oblivious and undisturbed; a few weeks ago Tobirama suggested Ashitaka might like sleeping with her siblings and the toddler has taken to it very well. Kita believes their little girl may well have a rather keener talent for chakra sensing than she herself does, although with a fairly limited range. Tobirama on the other hand is an _excellent_ sensor with a lot of experience, so will have _known_ what he was feeling since he's been checking on Kita regularly for over a month now.

Oh yes, Tobirama _definitely_ knew this was coming, the cat bastard. He _knows_ he deserves whatever Kita does to him too, going by that wince.

"Knowing would have stressed her." That's a very thin excuse _indeed_.

"Yes, it would have," Madara agrees coolly, "but Yori could have reassured her and then she could have worked through her fears. Instead you _lied_ to her, about something happening _in her body_ , right up until she got unpleasantly surprised by her waters breaking in the middle of the night." Twins are always born early and Madara doesn't _think_ this timing is that bad by twin standards, but twins are not remotely common in the Amaterasu lineage. He seems to remember Bandai and Norikura's Akahari and Kushigamine being about a month early...

Tobirama's shoulders sag; _good_. "I didn't want her to be upset," he repeats, voice small. "Bad things happen when pregnant women get too upset. She'd have been afraid and things could have gone _worse_. The babies were fine I _checked_ –"

"You could _still_ have checked every day if she knew and it would have reassured _both_ of you," Madara cuts in ruthlessly. "Instead you lied to her about your motives when she _trusted_ you. How do you think that's going to go down?"

Tobirama has been running around outside in nothing but a thin and sodden short-sleeved nightshirt that barely reaches his knees, but only _now_ does he look ashamed. "I deserve to have my _head_ bitten off," he admits, gaze dropping to the polished floor.

"Yes you do," Madara agrees tiredly, pressing against one eye with the heel of his palm. It's too early in the morning for this and own nemaki is clinging uncomfortably to his legs and groin. "We're bathing," he decides abruptly; "then we're arranging breakfast for when the birth's over or the children wake up, whichever comes first."

Tobirama looks up, opens his mouth to protest and then subsides, obediently following Madara out to the bathhouse. Neither of them is going to be able to appreciate a soak in the pool, but they can at least get clean under the showers and change into yukata, so that they will both be _decent_ for when other people start showing up to help.

Also, it would be considerate to feed the people currently delivering his wife of her twins. Necessity and chakra will only take you so far this early in the morning.

* * *

Kita has never been a person to scream when in overwhelming internal pain; the debilitating menstrual cramps of her first lifetime made sure of that –they had thankfully mitigated significantly as she got older there and have not carried over– and that habit of wheezing silence has coloured her experience of birth. Yori found it unnerving the first few times, but she's used to it by now. However _this_ time around Kita takes the time to mutter dire threats against Tobirama in the moments between the first birth –a little boy with Grandma's eyelids, epicanthic fold much deeper than most Uchiha and making the overall eye-shape narrower– and her waters breaking for a second time; she's _already_ exhausted!

"Here, eat this." Kita gratefully bites down on the food pill Sachimi stuffs into her mouth, the herbs and other supplements already breaking down in her saliva as she chews. A few minutes after swallowing her chakra levels are rising again, just in time to strengthen trembling muscles as she prepares to push once more.

The second child is a daughter with Tajima's gently tapered jaw, easily recognisable even on rounded baby features. Kita will have to think about names, but right now she just wants to go back to sleep. The sun is up, just about, but she feels that she has already done enough work for one day. Labour is hard work, no matter how quickly it can go sometimes.

"What do you want us to do with the babies, Kita?" Yori asks as the futon is carried out of the room and a replacement brought in. The old futon will need unstitching and the padding will have to be washed separately, but it will probably be salvaged. This is not the first time her waters have broken while she is in bed.

Kita tries to marshal her brain into something resembling order; with the fatigue gripping her thoughts and the trembling in her limbs, it's not easy.

"Take out and show my husband," she manages; that's important. "Then bring back to sleep with me." On the littlest futon, of course; that way she won't roll over on them by accident.

"And if Madara-sama wishes to see you?"

Kita shrugs one shoulder, the clean green summer nemaki with a woven pattern of grasses shifting slightly. Her husband may do as he pleases; this is her seventh pregnancy, he knows how tiring she finds summer births and no matter how small her new twins are, there were still _two_ of them to be delivered of.

They _are_ very small, but not actually much smaller than Shirakami was, which is reassuring. He did fine, they hopefully will too.

Gingerly lying down on the new futon, Kita closes her eyes and lets herself breathe as the shōji to the central room are finally opened and the seals disengage, revealing her husband and children to her senses… along with Tobirama.

She doesn't want to think about Tobirama right now. It hurts. She's tired.

Tobirama unfortunately doesn't give her a choice; once Madara has introduced the children to their new baby siblings, awe and wonder shining in his chakra all the while, the Senju follows her husband back into their bedroom and closes the shōji as Madara kneels down in his flame-and-tomoe patterned yukata to settle the tiny newborns on the little futon within the special frame painted with various seals.

The babies cuddle up against each-other in their sleep, echoing how they must have been pressed together in the womb. They are tiny and achingly perfect, and now they are dry and clean she can see the boy has a mass of loose ringlets while the girl's equally fine, soft hair sticks up untidily. Baby hair is rarely an indication of adult hair, but Mitama was born with curls which later turned into the same thick, unmanageable mass of spikes Madara has. It would be nice if this son's hair stayed soft and curly like Kinu's did, but Kita is not holding her breath.

"My wife has blessed me with two beautiful children," her husband murmurs, love achingly clear in his face and chakra as he gently brushes a strand of hair back from her face. "I am truly the most fortunate of men."

"Don't think I can manage any more," Kita admits. It's not just that she's just had _twins_ , although that definitely plays a part; she's nearly thirty-nine now. Complications are increasingly likely with every month she ages, both for her and for the baby. She's birthed eight children and raised another three to adulthood already; that's plenty. It's enough. Her beloved husband has ten children he calls his own, to lavish love upon and live well for; he will not be shattered by the loss of his heart as he was in the Naruto story, will not be twisted into a mockery of himself by despair and neglect. He will live long and joyfully.

"Then there need be no more, beloved," Madara says easily, his half-smile all soft warmth. "Even if you had never brought more than Toshi and Azami into my life, it would _still_ have been enough. I love all my children dearly but each one is a gift unlooked-for, my heart; you are not more dear to me for bearing them, and would be no less dear to me in their absence."

Kita feels tears well up and blinks them away. Their love is a deep, quiet thing, not at all like the desperate yearning agony which bound her husband to Hashirama or the aching joy which Tobirama's presence inspires in her, but at moments like this it rises from the depths of her soul, dark and vast and entirely too much for mere flesh to contain.

"Surely the Heavens smiled on me on the day of your birth," her husband says softly, sharingan spinning softly as he catches each tear with a fingertip and brushes them aside. "For all the grief and sorrow life has given me, it has blessed me with joys greater still."

Her husband is past forty now, the exhausted creases under his eyes permanently etched in his skin along with the worry-lines between his eyebrows and the laugh-lines in the corners of his eyes and around his mouth. His hands are scarred and calloused, his skin and mind marked with the memories of ten thousand battlefields, his eyes watch her from his brother's face –because their eyes were _not_ identical in shade and even now it startles her sometimes to see Izuna's browner irises in Madara's eyesockets where there should be coal-black– but his hair is no less wild than it was when he was fifteen, and his heart is no less kind.

"The divine is far beyond mortal understanding," she tells him, her voice rasping and wobbly, "but when you look at me like this, I can almost grasp it." What is there that is more divine than love?

Her husband laughs, soft and wondering as he wipes away another tear. "My heart, all the poetry that has ever been and ever will be could not adequately express the joy you give me."

Kita would like to go on basking in her husband's presence, exchanging sweet words and sweeter feelings, but Tobirama is lurking in the room whether she can sense him or not. "I love you, Madara," she says simply, feeling his heart stutter at her simple admission, "but I'm so tired."

"Then sleep," he urges her; "I will stay with the other children; we can take a day with the hawks, they will all enjoy that. There's nothing else that truly needs to be done today." It is true that _all_ her older children are taken enough with their father's birds to want at least to learn how to hold one steady on a glove and spin a lure; it is in fact their shared second-favourite father-child activity after bedtime stories. Ashitaka is a bit young for it, but she will enjoy watching. The whole clan will know that she's had twins by breakfast time, so nobody will be demanding Madara attend to Outguard business today or any other day this week, unless it is _genuinely_ an emergency. Even so…

He easily catches the shape of her thoughts. "Sleep, beloved; the babies will need you soon, and with how small they are they'll need feeding more often. Rest while you can."

"Fine," he can win this once.

Her husband smirks at her and bends down to kiss away the tear-tracks on her cheeks, then presses another kiss to the tip of her nose, sharingan catching her in a brief illusion.

" _You do not have to forgive Tobirama, or even look at him if you do not wish to, but please do at least let him apologise for his stupidity before kicking him out again. He's already punishing himself and I know how much you hate that."_

The illusion shatters, her husband's eyes fade to not-quite-black-enough and he kisses her one last time, a chase press of lips, before getting up, taking a set of clothes out of the wardrobe and leaving the room, closing the shōji quietly behind him.

Kita turns her head to look around and finds Tobirama kneeling at the foot of the bed, mortified red painted across his cheekbones and dyeing his ears scarlet, gaze firmly lowered and hands clenched in nervous fists on his thighs. His hair is impeccably tidy and his chakra is completely contained, not a single trace to reveal a hint as to his thoughts or feelings, but the bright scarlet markings on his face, the curve of his spine beneath his well-worn koi yukata, the slump of his shoulders and the bitter twist of his lips speak eloquently of tension and miserable self-loathing.

It's so unfair. Why can't she be angry with him for even just a _little_ while without him making her feel bad about it?!

* * *

"Tobirama." Kita sounds so tired; of _course_ she's tired, it's barely breakfast time and she's just finished giving birth to twins she wasn't expecting in the slightest. Stupid. So, so _stupid_ –

A sigh. "Tobirama, come here."

Tobirama shuffles around the edge of the new, clean futon that only smells of cotton and hemp fibre stuffing with faint tinges of straw, soap and sunshine, until he's kneeling level with Kita's knees. Just barely within arms' reach is the lower edge of the special fūinjutsu futon frame that everyone in the village now uses to monitor and support the health of premature infants; they may seem perfectly healthy, but it never hurts to be cautious. He doesn't dare look up; he knows what she'll look like, tired and sad and hurting, and he can't bear to see it. It's bad enough feeling it in her chakra, the exhaustion and pain adding an acidic undertone to her fragrant incense presence that is magnified by her physical scent.

He waits.

"Tobirama _why?_ "

The aching bewilderment hurts more than anger _ever_ could and he doesn't have an answer that justifies his choices. "I was afraid," he says simply, gaze fixed on his hands. "Afraid that you would panic, remembering your mother's death, and do yourself unintended harm through stress and fear." He breathes. "But you've never shied from confronting and releasing your fears; I was projecting my own fears on you, and my silence was for my own benefit."

"I trusted you and you lied to me."

Tobirama feels his throat close and his eyes water. She had and he did. Unclenching his hands he bends forwards, laying them flat on the floor and bowing until his forehead touches the tatami. "I apologise unreservedly for my foolish presumption. I will accept any punishment you choose to set."

Her chakra recoils, dragged tightly under her skin.

Tobirama waits.

He _desperately_ does not want to be banished back to his wing, but he _knows_ that is the punishment Kita is most likely to settle on. Not forever –she is not that cruel– but being barred from the comfort and security of curling up at night with her and Madara is most certainly something he _deserves_ after abusing the privilege so.

Her breathing shudders, short, sharp breaths.

Tobirama doesn't dare move. She hasn't said he can.

She _sobs_.

Tobirama closes his own eyes _tight_ but not quickly enough to keep his own tears from dripping onto the tatami. He is a _fool_ –

"You, you _stupid_ , _slush-brained_ – Tobirama!" The sheets hiss and Kita's hand is fisted in his hair, shaking him. "You, you! Sit _up!_ " She yanks his hair demandingly and Tobirama uncurls obediently from dogeza, peering cautiously up at her face.

Her blue-black eyes are red-rimmed and her cheeks are blotchy red, her mouth is trembling and her whole body is shuddering with the force of her tears.

She lets go of his hair. Her control over her presence falters and then all he can sense is pain.

" _Tobirama_!" It's a keening wail; how does he fix this? He _needs_ to fix this! He did this it's his fault he needs to make it _stop_ –

She lurches forwards; Tobirama hastily catches her –she's just _given birth_ he's such an _idiot_ bothering her about this _now_ – and freezes when she buries her face in his shoulder and wraps her arms around his ribcage. What–

" _Hug me_ you _stupid_ –"

Tobirama hastily obeys, utterly confused. He doesn't _understand_ he _hurt_ her _why_ –

A fist pounds on his shoulderblade. " _Stupid!_ "

"Yes, I'm an idiot," Tobirama agrees helplessly, not knowing what else to say. He's never been any good at dealing with crying women and he _still_ doesn't know what it was he said or did that suddenly upset his best friend this badly. He was trying to _apologise!_

Kita bangs her forehead against his shoulder, sobbing loudly. Tobirama adjusts his grip and tries rocking a little, like he does when Yukino is so exhausted and over-stimulated all she can do is scream.

Then two more piercing wails join in the chorus and Kita sags bonelessly in his grip, deep, racking sobs shaking her entire body.

"No, no, no, no–"

Tobirama makes a snap decision. It will probably get him in trouble later, but right now _any_ decision is going to get him in trouble, so. He shuffles forwards and lays Kita back down on the futon –wrestles her hands off him, she doesn't want to let go– then picks up the tiny infants, tucks them upright inside his yukata against his throat and lies down facing her, snuggling close so the babies are cradled between them and wraps his arms around her again.

Kita plants her face in the curve of his shoulder, pressing her upper body against his –gently cradling the babies between them– and taking deep, shuddering breaths as the reedy infant wailing continues unchecked. It's like being stabbed in the brain and he _hates_ it.

"Sing," Kita demands hoarsely.

Tobirama instantly catches her intent –a song will calm her as much as the babies– and his mind promptly goes blank as he casts around desperately for an easy tune. He's not particularly musical.

Then an Uchiha melody comes to mind, one he heard warriors playing late at night up at the border of Frost with just a harp or biwa for accompaniment, slow and strange and melancholy.

"Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to speak with you again, because a vision softly creeping, left its scenes while I was sleeping, and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains, within the sound, of silence."

Kita's breathing settles; Tobirama sings on, trying to stay in tune and remember all the words.

"In restless dreams I walked alone, and there were streets of river stones, 'neath the halo of a hanging lamp, I turned my collar to the cold and damp, when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a chakra light, that split the night, and touched the sound of silence."

The babies start to quiet; it's _working_ he can't stop now what are the words–

Kita's voice joins his: "And in the naked light I saw, ten thousand people maybe more, people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening, people writing songs, that voices never share, and no-one dares, disturb the sound of silence."

It is a terribly strange song and the words make little sense, but they also resonate deep inside in ways that almost hurt. Tobirama sings it through to the end and then starts again at the beginning as the tiny twins quiet further, then finally stop crying.

Then he sings the song through for a third time in the hope that they will go to sleep again.

"Fools said I you do not know, silence like a canker grows, hear my words so I might teach you, take my arms and I might reach you, but my words, like silent raindrops fell, and echoed, in the world, of silence."

And a fourth and a fifth time.

"And the people bowed and prayed, to the graven god they made, and the light flashed out its warning, and the words that it was forming, and the sign said the words of the shamans are written on the sewer walls, and barrack halls, and whisper, in the sound, of silence."

By the time the twins are asleep again he's sung himself hoarse and Kita has also stopped crying. She lets him crawl backwards out of bed to gently lay the babies back on their secure miniature futon, but makes a warning noise when he moves to stand.

Looking back at her, flopped on her side and watching him with blankly exhausted eyes, Tobirama suddenly realises that she was too tired to either accept or refuse his apology. She's _still_ too tired. His expecting her to make a considered decision was too much.

He really _is_ a fool.

Kita closes her eyes and makes grabby motions at him with one hand. Tobirama obediently climbs back onto the futon, cradles his best friend against his chest with one hand cupping the back of her head and the other gently rubbing her lower back, and then stares blindly over the top of her head as she too succumbs to sleep.

Hopefully he'll be able to apologise properly later.

* * *

It has been three weeks since Kita gave birth, Obon will soon be here and Tobirama has _still_ not managed to apologise properly. He has _tried_ –repeatedly even!– but Kita has cut him off every single time, insisting that he has _already_ apologised and doesn't need to do it again.

Or did he not _mean_ it the first time?

Tobirama _did_ of course mean it the first time, but that doesn't mean he thinks that apology was _enough_. It made her _cry_ for goodness sake! Why isn't she letting him do it again, the right way this time?

Madara isn't helping. He just accepts Kita's view that Tobirama _has_ apologised, so continues on as normal.

In the past three weeks the twins have grown visibly, as healthy infants do, and their facial features have become more distinct. However that has brought with it certain… problems. No outright accusations as yet, but gossip and rumours abound.

Tobirama is cradling the as-yet-unnamed boy twin against his chest as he reads the Senju paperwork, his office's shōji open to catch what little breeze there is on this increasingly hot August morning, when Tōka wanders into the Uchiha Clan Hall's garden wearing a peach-blossom-and-bamboo yukata, sits on the engawa across from him to remove her zori and then steps into his office to sit next to the desk.

"So this is the little boy I've heard so much about."

Tobirama glances up at her. "Kita's new son," he agrees blandly, not entirely sure where she's going with this.

"You know, I heard a rumour that Kita cursed you extensively during the delivery," his cousin says affably, leaning in to examine the sleeping infant more closely, "and he certainly seems to have your eyes."

Ah. So _that_ is what this is about. "I am yet to hear a question," Tobirama says neutrally.

Tōka _looks_ at him; Tobirama briefly feels fifteen again and has to remind himself that he is _not_ an impulsive, insecure teenager anymore. She may be his cousin by blood, but Tōka has always been closer than that to him; more like a sister.

"Tobi, I know you're sleeping with them," she says bluntly. "You've not exactly been hiding it."

Tobirama lowers his head a calculated inch, acknowledging her observation. He has not been hiding it.

"Why has Madara been letting you into his bedroom? Or should I say, _keeping_ you in his bedroom and having his wife sleep there too?"

Tobirama pauses for a moment to consider the complexity of answering his cousin's question. There are at _least_ five layers to Madara's willingness to allow Tobirama to sleep on his marital futon, some of which are certainly _not_ for out-clan consumption. And Tōka, for all she is his favourite and closest cousin, is not Uchiha. Not even peripherally Uchiha.

"Are you familiar with the legalities concerning hostage-taking that the Uchiha practice?"

"Remind me," Tōka drawls, settling into a comfortable warrior's slouch that looks very incongruous when contrasted with her cheerfully feminine outfit.

"Short-term hostage-taking is governed by the generally-accepted diplomatic protocols common to the rest of the Elemental Nations," Tobirama explains. "Long-term hostage-taking is governed by their… somewhat idiosyncratic laws concerning concubinage." Which Tobirama had known about _well before_ Hashirama died; Madara had explained all this to him back when Sakurajima was wooing Kakuzu, as he'd been confused about why the Outguard Head was so _very_ ticked off about the whole business. It all came back to the infamous Biei-Fuji, who'd been the one writing these laws in the first place. Hence all their various idiosyncrasies in what they do and do not allow and who is permitted to take advantage of them.

"Oh?" Tōka is now _intent_.

"The laws only allow male concubinage, not female," Tobirama continues steadily, "and can only be invoked by Heads of Lineage who are also warriors. The general tone of the law is that if you can grab an out-clan warrior, he doesn't fight back enough to prevent you from singlehandedly dragging him all the way home and the Clan judges your means to keep him contained as sufficient, then he is your concubine and you have a duty of care to him." Since it had not been Sakurajima securing Kakuzu and taking him back to the clan compound, she'd not been able to invoke these laws despite being a Lineage Head; she'd had to woo her now-husband the hard way.

"How interesting that I've never heard about this before," Tōka says mildly.

"The really interesting part is that, under Uchiha law, my brother handing me over to Kita to be sealed can be interpreted as him offering me to her as a concubine," Tobirama says blandly, eyes dropping back to his paperwork. "And her accepting; Madara also accepting, since he was the one who demanded the exchange in the first place." Kita was not a Lineage Head at that point, but she _became_ one before hostages were exchanged back and her means of keeping him contained _had_ been judged sufficient. Between his chakra being sealed away and the leash-seal powered _by_ the chakra he couldn't access –never mind his own willingness to abide for the sake of his clan, his brother and the remote possibility of peace– he had been _more_ than sufficiently contained.

"You don't say."

"Neither of them interpreted it that way," Tobirama adds dryly, "but they _could_ have done. I rather doubt Hashirama would have protested it at the time." His brother would have very _happily_ sold him into marriage –even an unequal marriage– to guarantee peace. He did offer Tobirama as a hostage without asking him first –both times– so marriage would not have been beyond him. If Madara had implied _then_ that it was a necessary condition…

"And yet here you are."

"Anija attacking Madara left the Senju in a _very_ precarious position," he reminds her. "Madara taking the Senju Head as his concubine, then transferring leadership to a younger, less martially capable candidate is a suitably strict punishment and makes it very clear to the daimyo that I will be a hostage against my clan's good behaviour for the rest of my life, as is proper when Madara has been so _very_ merciful as to not execute anybody." Not even Tsunama, who as Hashirama's almost-grown son is the most acceptable victim.

"You do not seem particularly bothered by this." Tōka's tone makes it clear she is genuinely concerned for his wellbeing, so Tobirama changes his approach slightly.

"Madara asks nothing and expects nothing save that my existing friendship with Kita continues as before. Everything else is of my own choice and initiative."

"You are _choosing_ to sleep with Madara and Kita."

"It's nice, not being alone on my futon anymore." He has missed his little brothers for a very long time and Hashirama stopped sharing a futon with him _well_ before he married Mito; starting right after that confrontation at the river over Anija's friendship with Madara, in fact. Chika may have been his wife, but she never _slept_ with him. His children did once they were older, but that's different.

Tōka easily grasps the subtext. "So where does this little man come in, then?" She waves a hand, easily encompassing the baby.

"Kita says he has her grandmother's eyes and Madara's hair."

Tōka smiles sweetly at him. "What a delightful coincidence! Your hair curled like that when you were a baby, and your eyes were shaped _just_ like that as well." She pauses. "The broad face and pointy chin are rather like you too, although that's _definitely_ an Uchiha skin-tone and I've seen those ears on several different people in their smithing district."

In other words, this is going to be _worse_ than the whole mess with Shirakami being back-handedly named after him. Wonderful.

* * *

As summer slips into autumn and the twins gain weight, Madara finds out much more about what exactly is going on in Wind. It's both about what he expected and decidedly _not_.

The Wind Daimyo trying to consolidate the desert's various roaming clans into a single village? Expected. Easily predictable when every other nation –large or small– is trying to persuade its itinerant shinobi to settle in a single place and accept their daimyo's patronage. In fact the other great nations have largely _succeeded_ – Water is still consolidating, but their daimyo is most certainly going to achieve that goal, at least in the short-term– so Wind is the odd one out there.

That those clans have decided that no, they don't particularly _want_ to be united under one rule in some central part of Wind's deserts? Also fairly predictable. What could _not_ have been predicted is how they have gone about eluding their daimyo's authority.

Well, if they recognise it at all; it's not as though the daimyo's law means much out amidst the sands. The only law in the desert is the desert itself, which enforces its whims in the harshest of terms, and the law of the bijū that makes that desert its home. The daimyo trying to enforce his will on the tribes while there is a gigantic living chakra construct walking around the desert, likely to take offense at a permanent settlement, is a tad foolish.

However rather than defy their daimyo directly, the tribes have scattered. The bunraku caravans have made permanent bases elsewhere, in Sand Country and Bird Country and Konohagakure. The weavers have shed their signature garb and dissolved back into the villages that edge the desert, a few more people here and there in every settlement to weave the fibre the herders gather from their goats, known and shielded from outsiders, communicating with one-another through secret ways. The metal-singers are simply gone, nowhere to be found and their former mines barren, the wind-riders can be found only by the caravans crossing the desert –no caravan-master will betray them when doing so means being left at the mercy of the sands– and the dowsers are likely still in the depths of the desert, impossible to find unless they wish to be.

Shiba-sama of Wind therefore has no unified shinobi force to command, and his attempt to exert authority over those who had the potential to become one has led him to greater losses still. Wind Country is still as hollow as a blown eggshell, more vulnerable now than ever before, and its daimyo has lost considerable face.

However Wind is a harsh place, and few indeed would wish to govern it. Shiba-sama is unlikely to be deposed; who wants to rule a nation that is the stomping ground of a half-mad bijū? One where rice cannot be grown, water is many times more costly than salt and nine-tenths of the land is uninhabitable? The vassal nations that edge it are far more easy prey.

Madara talks the implications through with Izuna one afternoon over tea, his three youngest children napping together on a blanket in the corner of the room; two-year-old Ashitaka is _very_ taken with her baby siblings. Kita is busy spinning her silk on the engawa while Sukumo spins hemp fibre for her fūinjutsu, Adatara stitches together freshly-washed kimono panels and Yukino reads. Shirakami is no doubt down the forges visiting his uncle Tekari, who is teaching the future Outguard Heir about forge techniques, shuriken and how long it takes to turn iron sand into steel tools, Takahara will be in the archives again, Makuma is in the river learning water manipulation from his father and Mitama is likely running around free with his friends in the village somewhere. He's twelve; he'll be fine.

"He'd have been better off trying for something more like what we have in Konohagakure," Izuna says sourly, "but Shiba-sama was too stingy and ambitious for that. He wanted the authority Date-dono has in Lightning, but his court is small and his father didn't have any shinobi concubines to sire children on because Wind's shinobi clans don't care a fist of salt for their so-called overlord. The Shiba never conquered the desert, merely the arable lands encircling it, and their claim over the sands and wastes of the interior is purely theoretical. If that land belongs to _anyone_ it belongs to the Ichibi, purely because the bijū is so clearly _occupying_ it."

"Yes, Wind is _not_ a popular invasion target," Madara agrees. "Also fairly low on unrest; everybody's too busy living hand to mouth and most of its shinobi already make most of their money through non-military means, mining and weaving and theatre performances and so on."

"Yes, the caravan-guarding and espionage was basically it," Izuna confirms, "along with the occasional poisoning and the usual self-defence from incursions of foreign shinobi. It doesn't help though that the various clans' sources of wealth are mostly _in_ the desert; the metal-singers are the wealthiest and most influential, due to their unchallenged access to gold and iron, but you wouldn't want to build a _village_ near their primary mining areas. There's nothing to eat out there and less to drink; constant water access is a necessity for a settlement and if there even _is_ such a thing hiding under the sands somewhere, you'd have to get the dowsers to give it up first."

Madara sips his tea; Konoha's new bunraku caravan will be travelling in Wind for months on end, but will leave a certain proportion of their members in the village year-round. The eldest and youngest, specifically; those who are infirm or most easily taken hostage, so need to learn needed self-defence skills in a safe environment before joining the wandering theatre troupe.

"Speaking of that, have you been following what the Hyūga are getting up to?"

"Not in detail." Madara is keeping up with the generalities, but he knows Izuna is following the unrest building among their distant kin very closely _indeed_ , so doesn't see the point in doing so himself as well. That would be terribly redundant.

" _Really_ Niisan?" Izuna shakes his head.

"You seemed to have in hand."

His otōto rolls his eyes, visibly pleased. " _Anyway_ , the Main House is splintering. There's the able-bodied faction who think those blinded and crippled clansmen should settle down into domestic support roles, which has a few blinded and injured clansmen who _have_ settled well into civilian roles as part of their group. Mainly silk-weavers and spinners; a few men who never wanted to be warriors and women who were mostly doing that _anyway_ , seeing as silk is considered a noblewoman's duty.

"Then there's the variously maimed who _want_ to regain some measure of their lost warrior skills and responsibilities and the able-bodied who support them, mainly family members and spouses whose status in-clan has fallen as a result of said injuries. There's also the able-bodied who now have _many_ more clan duties and don't care for it much, so would be in favour of whatever gives them more time for the things they would rather be doing instead.

"Hisaaki is in the 'get used to your new status and accept the demotion as deserving' camp, which is awkward for him when his wife has not the slightest intention of doing so. Seeing as Hinagiku-san is ferociously reclaiming her mobility and thereby inspiring others to follow in her –ha– footsteps, while also being rather more skilled in the interpersonal side of things than her husband, the balance is shifting very quickly; Hisaaki is definitely under-estimating quite _how_ quickly.

"Those of the Branch House out managing the Hyūga estate won't be back until after the rice harvest in October, but by then leadership may well have shifted to a different Lineage within the Main House. It wouldn't be the first time."

"However Hinaka would still be Heiress," Madara points out.

"Yes, but she'd be expected to emulate her _mother's_ ideals rather than her father's," Izuna says tartly. "She's already making that transition; her father dropping most of her training in favour of his bratty youngest –who wasn't even named with leadership in mind so is _definitely_ well behind compared to his sister at that age, as he will barely have the basics– rather sped up the shift there."

"What are the Hyūga doing about their war-born?"

Izuna shrugged. "Shoving them off onto Branch nursemaids and foster-parents, mostly. I _have_ made sure to remind various Branch members that they are currently residing on Uchiha land, and that _all_ born on Uchiha land have the rights laid out in the Konohagakure charter as well as your protection as their liegelord, which is why so many of them have popped out kids in the past two years. The Hyūga generally seal kids age five, at Shichi-Go-San, so there's plenty of time for the change in leadership and for you to 'remind' them of those children being born on _your_ land and under _your_ authority closer to the time."

Over on the blanket the little pile of children shifts and one of the babies starts crying. Madara sets his teacup down and hurries over; it's Minami, his new son, who is fussing.

Minami, who looks so _much_ like his long-dead baby brother Saburō –other than the eyes and ears– that Madara's heart aches just looking at him sometimes. He'd almost forgotten what Saburō looked like until his twins' name-day arrived, and then seeing the shock of soft curls, the square face and delicate chin had brought his memories of his littlest brother flooding back.

Minami has Kita's grandmother's eyes, but he also bears an amusing yet entirely coincidental resemblance to Tobirama. Well, _somewhat_ coincidental; Madara knows his mother's extended family was descended from Senju Kabema several times over and his father had the man in his own family tree as well, if just the once. The eyes are _definitely_ a coincidence though, as Tobirama gets those from his Hatake parent. Then again, there _were_ a few Hatake in the Senju family tree in the generations before Kabema's…

Izuna picks up Minami's twin sister Megata –who has the same slightly rounded jaw that Yahiko used to share with their father and their softer hair to go with it– and cradles her against his chest before she can do more than whine.

"I don't know how you and Kita manage this many children without going mad," he says conversationally as Madara sways, cuddling his son close. "Never mind your other responsibilities."

"Tobirama helps," Madara points out. With twins to manage, Tobirama's basically given up on his own futon entirely and sleeps with them every night, so as to take as much of the burden off Kita as possible. About time too; he's unlikely to be moving back, although he _still_ keeps his clothes in his wing.

"That's still just three of you corralling ten children; E and I have our hands full with two!"

"We enjoy it." Fatherhood is honestly his favourite thing. Every new child has been a new joy and a new challenge, and he has done his best to be what each one needs. It's not been remotely _easy_ , but he likes to think he's a better man for it.

Kita would not have taken off the contraceptive seal if she didn't love being a parent just as much as he does, and while he would have been happy to settle for five children –well seven counting Toshi and Azami– he _loves_ that she was willing to give him a further two daughters and son.

Minami settles, staring up at Madara with wide eyes; Madara sticks out his tongue, making his tiny son beam and chuckle.

"Oh yes, I forgot; you have no dignity," Izuna mutters dryly.

"I have ten children; I don't _need_ dignity," Madara retorts happily. Dignity would only get in the way of doting on his precious sons and daughters.

* * *

"I am very sorry for making you cry."

Kita looks up from her weaving; Tobirama is sat beside her loom, a scroll in his lap and the facial expression of somebody who believes they have just unravelled a challenging riddle and are waiting to find out if they got it right.

"I forgive you," she agrees easily; it wasn't so much _him_ making her cry as the whole situation. She'd been tired, sore, her feelings had been all over the place and his clear _expectation_ that she would throw their entire friendship away over his well-intentioned deception had just been too much. She hadn't _wanted_ him to beg, reinforcing the social abyss that separates them even now; she'd wanted him to reach _past_ it.

Which he had eventually done on her prompting, and he hasn't tried to reinforce that distance again since, but she knows it's still there in his head. Nothing she can do about that, unfortunately –he wouldn't listen to her in that– but she's still trying.

Tobirama's posture softens fractionally in pleased reassurance; he does so like to be right about things. "What are your thoughts about the situation in Water?"

Kita hums as she shifts the warp threads and slides the shuttle across, another line of subtle willow-leaf pattern emerging. "The Water Daimyo has certainly silenced all dissent and extracted oaths of loyalty and service from all of his nation's shinobi clans," she muses, "but how long will that last? Is it truly peace if those submitting did not consent to it? Will they settle under the boot on their necks, content with the concessions granted for the loss of liberty, or will they plot vengeance in their hearts? Such trouble Shimazu-dono is bestowing on his descendents as an inheritance."

Tobirama makes an agreeing noise in his throat, then leans closer and waves a temari over Megata's head; the baby squeals delightedly and reaches for it, trapping it between both palms and clutching it close to gum at the fabric.

Kita smiles; Tobirama does so enjoy doting on her children. On all children really; it's almost a shame he's not at all interested in the process of making them.

"I do wonder how Shimazu-dono will go about organising his newly-oathed shinobi," she continues idly. "Will he let them stay on their traditional lands, or will he insist their leaders and training be held in a central location under his eye? Will he insist upon a uniform, as Date-dono has in Lightning and Tamura-dono in Earth, or will he follow our example and allow the various clans to keep their traditional dress? Will he pass laws so that one may only call themselves a shinobi if they have sworn oaths to him? Will those who refuse to serve be named outlaws and persecuted? Will he be reforming the caste system or using it to better enforce his will? So many questions and no answers as yet."

"He may well allow the clans to keep their traditional ranges," Tobirama concedes, glancing up from Megata with warm smile still firmly in place as he gently tickles her littlest daughter, making her giggle, "but is very likely to centralise and standardise training, likely in a village on the same island as his capital. He may well also arrange for weaponry and armour production to be centralised, to ensure none can arm themselves without his consent, which is more likely to be done through tax exemptions for the relevant smiths who consent to work for the state and arranging a state monopoly on mining iron."

Tucked against Kita's shoulder, Minami sucks his thumb and dozes, oblivious of his sister's glee.

"As for clothing…" Tobirama allows Megata to grab his fingers and shove them into her mouth, "I suspect traditional garb will not be _forbidden_ , but it may possibly be required that they wear a uniform while carrying out missions under the daimyo's aegis."

"Which will significantly enrich those producing the materials involved in that uniform and impoverish those who were involved in manufacturing other clothing styles," Kita adds, twisting a pin and rolling more of the finished cloth onto the loom bolt so that the working edge is neither too close nor too far from her body. "The daimyo is most likely to go for wool, armour-weave and cotton as standard, with bark-cloth kept specifically for winter-wear or else set aside entirely in favour of sealskin and furs." Making armour-weave standard makes it easy to keep control of production and cotton is already firmly in the hands of major land-owners; wool is more diffuse, but introducing quotas and a tax as already exists on rice will ensure the daimyo can outfit his shinobi at very little cost.

"You expect unrest," Tobirama notes, Megata still gumming happily on his fingers.

"Not immediately," Kita dismisses, "but in time. As the imbalances this new system leverages become more distinct and various clans are inexorably pressured into abandoning their traditions and lifestyles. There will be clashes over education, with those clans already prioritising those skills the daimyo prefers his shinobi acquire being favoured over the others. Having all the clans in one place will likely further enforce the caste system, as will being dependent on the daimyo for food. Well, dependent on his wages and on merchants; lower-caste shinobi families will no longer be able to forage for themselves and tend their own farms if the shops refuse to serve them."

"Trouble indeed," Tobirama murmurs, then bends down to tickle Megata again so she lets go of his hand.

* * *

Tobirama officially hands over Headship of the Senju clan to Tsunama in the New Year after his nephew turns twenty, as is proper and appropriate. He, Mito and Tōka have by then ensured Tsunama is capable of completing _all_ the relevant roles required for the smooth running of the Senju, although he will in truth only be performing two or three of them at most –hosting clients, negotiating contracts and acting as the clan's spokesperson to the Uchiha in various civil and military matters– and all of the clan paperwork is finally gone from Tobirama's rooms in the Uchiha Clan Hall.

Regrettably, certain of his clansmen don't seem to realise that this means Tobirama is unwilling to exert his seniority over his nephew, no matter _how_ displeased by Tsunama's decisions they are.

His cousin Hattōma and his cronies are the most frequent offenders; likely because he's the next-oldest warrior with the Senji main family suffix, being Yuta-ba's only surviving son by Tobirama's late uncle Fusuma, and feels that if Tobirama isn't the one leading the clan anymore then _he_ should be in charge. No matter what Madara decreed or why; after all, _Tsunama_ is Hashirama's son, so surely _he_ should be the one paying the penalty for his father's insubordination, rather than the wider clan?

Tobirama is increasingly tempted to take this constant interference in his free time as a personal challenge to him as a warrior –a lesser version of the challenge for clan head– and thrash his idiot cousin in the ring. Then again, all _that_ would prove is that Tobirama is still stronger than any of the clan's other warriors and further undermine Tsunama's authority. And he has thrashed Hattōma once already: four years ago, for demanding that Tobirama deny his oldest son Sesshama the pottery apprecticeship the then-twelve-year-old has set his heart upon so that the boy would become 'a proper warrior' instead.

Then in late spring Hattōma and his fellow irritants come to complain about Tsunama's choice of spouse –Senju Sonode, whose father Saen tends the clan's camellias and extracts the oil the clan protect their weapons and tools with– and Tobirama decides he's let this drag on far _too_ long already. However what to _do_ is still in question; he was politely scathing over tea and made it clear his nephew can request the hand of any women he chooses, as is every man's right –Tsunama _did_ ask Tobirama's opinion of Sonode first, which was sweet but frankly unnecessary– but this can't continue. He's _stepped down_ , he's not Clan Head or even a senior warrior anymore, technically speaking, since he's not allowed to command the Senju in the field! He needs to somehow make it clear that he is now removed from the Senju hierarchy entirely: he's a long-term hostage against their good behaviour and not permitted to take part in clan politics, and openly expressing _any_ opinion on the Senju Head's choice of bride, beyond recognising that Tsunama is free to marry whomsoever he pleases, _is_ a political stance.

He complains about it later, when drinking tea with Kita in the garden.

"–and they all _know_ I am not supposed to take part in clan politics! It was very clear in the edict! But those warriors who are dissatisfied with the new path the clan is taking see me as their _legitimate_ leader and my deposition as a political technicality, since I was not publically defeated by either my nephew or Madara. Of course nobody is expecting _Madara_ to stage a public challenge and then either break half my bones or kill me outright –they all know he massively outmatches me, they've watched us spar and I only win hits when I manage to surprise him– but Tsunama, while a perfectly capable warrior, is _not_ my equal. And _that_ is all they care about."

Kita passes him the dish of senbei; Tobirama takes one, chewing as his friend also hands one cracker each to her twin children, who suck on them while sitting up on the blanket laid out under the willow tree, watching him with wide eyes.

"I can't think of what I can do to make them stop approaching me," he admits as Kita pops a sembei in her own mouth, then passes the dish to him again. "Banning them from the Uchiha compound would just be Madara refusing access, which would make them double down on insisting I am their absent leader and likely prompt more visible disobedience. I don't want this to spread out from these few dissidents and into the wider clan: that would force Madara to take a much harsher stance and I know he'd hate the public executions even more than I would. I just–"

Kita leans in and shoves another senbei in his mouth; Tobirama pauses to chew.

"There is something I have wanted to offer you for some time now," she says, head tilted down but eyes fixed firmly on his face, "but that your various duties have precluded. I would ask you now, with the understanding that I have had this in mind for a very long time and my speaking up is neither a reaction to your current predicament nor a passing whim."

Tobirama swallows. "Go on."

Kita resettles herself, _uchiwa_ fan with a vibrant Amaterasu print held lightly in her lap. "Senju Tobirama," she intones softly, "you have long been dear to me, and your position and duties have long prevented me from expressing my care in the proper fashion. You are the brother of my heart, and I would be most honoured if you would accede to becoming my brother in truth. I wish to add your name to the listing of my lineage, that you may bear my clan name for the rest of your days and be honoured as my kinsman."

Tobirama's mind races through the implications and subtext of this offer –it is both like and unlike what Kamui offered to Chika, where the wording was 'person most dear to my heart,' and there was no mention of lineage– and what he knows of other Uchiha adoptees. Teruhito the cabinet-maker, who is Oshiki's cousin and was adopted because his widowed father had been courting an Uchiha warrior but died before the relationship could be formalised; the various potters, who were less adopted than hired and later married in.

As an adoptee he is not _required_ to take the Uchiha name, but he may do so if he chooses and it is being _offered_ to him.

He bows, not too deeply or too long; sibling to sibling. "Kita, I would be honoured to be your brother in truth," he says, meaning every word. "You are also the sister of my heart and to claim you as such before your clan would bring me great joy."

Kita _beams_ at him, not even attempting to hide the expression behind her fan, then shuffles across the blankets and hugs him tightly.

"Thank you, Niisan," she whispers as he wraps his arms around her and kisses the top of her head, inhaling her scent and chakra.

"Thank _you_ , imōto," Tobirama manages, throat tight. It seems like he will have another opportunity to be a big brother after all. What a strange journey this has been, from enemy to hostage to ally and then friend, and now finally to brother. He will be _Uchiha_ Tobirama for the rest of his days, which is a strange but in no way unwelcome thought. In fact he's rather looking forward to it, especially the part where his sister will be making him a proper Uchiha coat; he wants it to have her dragon form painted on the lining.

Izuna is going to _twitch_. It will be very amusing. Especially now he can call the other man 'brother-in-law' to his face.

* * *

It's been four years now since Kita finally got around to adopting Tobirama, adding his name to the Toyotama Lineage Records right after Toshi and Azami, and this year Madara added a new name under his own in the Amaterasu Lineage Records: Takahara is now an adult. His son, his firstborn, is twenty years old and Madara is four years older than his father ever got to be. He's forty-six, which oddly enough does not feel as old as it had looked back when _he_ was twenty.

His scars do ache when it rains though, and some mornings he has to be careful getting off the futon because his bones ache too. Izuna has the same problem; in fact it's possibly worse for Izuna, whose opponent always favoured the sword rather than preferring to fight jutsu to jutsu. Not that Tobirama seems to move any less well when it rains, but he is both water-natured and also far less likely to whinge about such things to Madara.

Madara is doing his best to stay in good physical shape and is looking forward to being able to complete his sons' training properly rather than having to resort to a last-minute sharingan transfer, but that training is unfortunately going to be put on hold for a few months this year: last autumn the Daimyo of Water extended an invitation to Madara to visit his court in the following spring, nominally as an indication of there being no hard feelings over that summary invasion –chasing bloodline thieves– seven years ago, but also to hammer out trade agreements and so that Shimazu-dono, his court and his shinobi can all get a good look at the most infamous warrior on the continent.

It's not going to be much fun, for him or any of the people he's taking along; Water Country has the most complex court precedence system out of any of the Elemental Nations, which Madara can technically bypass as the Head of the highest-ranking _kuge_ clan still in existence, but still has to recognise when greeting his hosts. Mito arranged for several Uzumaki experienced in courtly precedence and protocol to winter in Konohagakure, but even with sharingan-assisted memorisation and a very large entourage including several independent Nara and Yamanaka, Akimichi Chōkō's cousin Chōmu and his ino-shika-cho team, a few Aburame and Hyūga Hinaka with her personal retainers as allied fellow _kuge_ and Madara's own entire household –right down to his very unexpected but in no way unwelcome new daughter, born on his father's death-day last autumn– the entire experience is likely to be very, very challenging.

Especially since he had to leave Izuna behind; matters with Earth Country's new daimyo and shinobi commander have been a little sticky of late, so Madara decided the best course of action was to have his brother and Tōka to manage that with Hikaku, Benten, Sakurajima and Oshiki on the Outguard side of things, with Minakata and Yasakatone keeping an eye on the clan and Hidaka on the wider village, ably assisted by his second Yamanaka Inohaya. Tobirama has left the Academy in the care of Kagutsuchi and Aburame Shifū and Mito is taking care of the school, Kita has recently extended the reach of her Aniki seals –and why she picked that name for the sensor maps Madara _still_ doesn't know, beyond the grinning aside to Izuna that 'Aniki sees everything, you know'– to cover an additional ten miles beyond the borders of Uchiha land and there really isn't anything _else_ Madara can do at this point, so he's deliberately not worrying about it.

He's got the most decadent and hedonistic court in the Elemental Nations to deal with; the people back home will manage just fine.

His wife comes up beside him on the deck of the very fine ship carrying them eastwards, not that it's really clear that's where they're going with the fog being what it is. Madara knows he's a passable sailor after the months spent pirate chasing seven years back, but he's not sure how the navigators can know where they are in this endless mist.

"Enjoying the view?" she asks mildly, standing angled so as to look along the railing rather than out across the murky waters, fan bearing a print of Ryūjin on the inner side half-hiding the lower half of her face from the waves.

Madara glances to his right –the direction Kita is looking in– and snorts; Tobirama is standing further down the ship, corralling Yukino, Adatara and Ashitaka, and making sure none of them fall over the railing while trying to look at the ocean. Ashitaka used to look so like Myōkō that it was almost physically painful, but she's growing out of that now. After all, she's already markedly older than his second-youngest brother ever got to be.

"Very domestic," he agrees wryly; Tobirama does look very striking in a proper indigo warrior's coat, and he can't deny it's very satisfying to see the man walking around wearing the red-and-white uchiwa on the back of all his clothing. Kita spent half the winter making sure _all_ their children have proper coats –Makuma and Yukino were _very_ disappointed to not be allowed proper Uchiha coats like their father has, but were mollified by the Uzumaki and Hatake-marked coats Adatara sewed for them in the same compromise design as Kita used for Tobirama's _first_ coat– and that they are properly lavish. All their coats are silk-lined, although only his older four have proper patchwork; Makuma is not Uchiha so it wouldn't be inappropriate, Adatara is thirteen, Yukino is twelve and also not Uchiha, Ashitaka is seven and the little twins are only four, so Kita's sister Naka painted silk panels for their coats as the Widow's Association does when making their finest kimono.

Even Tobirama has a silk coat-lining, although that is because Kita made his adoption coat with one to begin with. Most new warrior coats have silk linings now; the clan can afford it –individual _warriors_ can afford it, even– and tightly-woven silk is as much armour as padded cotton and sturdy canvas, affording good protection against piercing wounds.

Still, seeing Minami and Megata running around playing ninja in tiny matching indigo coats is quite impossibly adorable; even the Kirigakure shinobi manning the ropes and sails seem to be moved by the exuberant innocence on display.

"How is our littlest?" He asks.

Kita glances down inside the wide neck of her coat; she's not wearing armour, but all Uchiha coats are cut to _allow_ for armour, so it is possible to wear a small child inside one if not otherwise encumbered. Their daughter is not _that_ small anymore, but his wife likes to cheat with fūinjutsu. "Sleeping, thankfully; she's a very good sleeper, is our Toyouke."

Had his seventh daughter –he always counts Toshi and Azami– been born on any other day, Madara would have given her a name to match their other children; but she was born on the day his father died, almost the very same hour as he had finally passed. So –with Kita's permission– Madara had gone looking in another part of the clan records and chosen a name that matched the theme usually favoured by the Kōjin lineage, which Madara's great-grandmother Nakisawa had belonged to, his grandfather Hachimantai had honoured in naming his own children and Ohabari-oba kept up with hers as well.

"Long may it continue," Madara murmurs, reaching out to take his wife's free hand and tug her closer.

"Did you manage to read any of the pillow-books Shutsumi-san brought over?" his wife asks quietly.

Madara feels his face flush; yes he had and yes he _had_ noticed that they were very _definitely_ drawn from real life with a very thin veneer of deniability layered over the top, mainly in the matter of names and titles. Locations, inter-personal relationships, dialogue and sex acts were no doubt all entirely authentic.

He made a point of _not_ using his sharingan, even though that means he is likely to forget certain details. He doesn't _want_ all that filth permanently etched in his mind, thank you.

"The most recent one and the summary of highlights from the past three decades," he admits. There are _centuries_ of Mizu pillow books if one is so inclined to indulge in such things and Uzushio have multiple copies of every single one, complete with various associated political commentaries. Madara was happy to limit himself to the commentaries when possible.

"I read a little more than that," Kita tells him mildly, "and I suspect we are going to feature in the next one, hopefully in a strictly peripheral manner."

"Your seals are good," Madara assures her. "We can enforce privacy."

"I'm mostly wondering what kind of speculation there's going to be about us and Tobirama."

Madara shrugs. "More of the same, no doubt; we knew what we were letting ourselves in for when I decided the concubine laws would work to keep him in the house, and then you adopting him as a sibling added to the intrigue since most outsiders only know of our adult adoption traditions in the context of intimate same-sex relationships." Now they have peace it's no longer _necessary_ for clansmen to adopt their outclan brothers-in-arms.

"So long as there's not _too_ much speculation about Minami's looks I'm sure things will be fine," Kita decides, "but if there is I reserve the right to defend my honour as your wife." At four Minami somehow looks more like Tobirama than ever, save for his colouring and ears; Madara suspects the kami are having a joke at their expense. Ironically, he also still looks a _lot_ like Saburō as well, which implies that if his little brother _had_ ever grown up enough to join the Outguard Hashirama would have asked some uncomfortable questions. Megata meanwhile is taking more after her mother, despite very definitely having her grandfather's jawline.

"I'm sure the Water Daimyo won't mind it if a few of his more annoying nobles find themselves a limb short," Madara agrees blandly. "They should have a little more respect for your prudence and discretion." Then again, in Water having a child by a concubine as a personal heir separate from your spouse is not unheard-of, so what comments there are may be praising her foresight rather than condemning her infidelity…

"I almost prefer the rumours which imply you like to watch," his wife mutters, rolling her eyes. "Never mind that you'd never manage to keep your hands to yourself for that long and Tobirama is no more attracted to me than he is to the moon."

"The petty, greedy and small-minded assume all others think as they do," Madara reminds her mildly, deliberately _not_ dwelling on the images conjured by her implication. "Their speculation is more a reflection of them than of us."

"By our own standards we are judged," Kita agrees vaguely, settling again. "Well, I'm sure this will be _fun_ then; I wonder how many layers of intrigue Shimazu-dono is operating on."

"At least seven, I should think." Madara's noticed seven anyway; Izuna would probably be able to pick out another two at _least_. Thankfully they're only going to be here for five weeks, so all the layers and details will still be fresh enough in his mind when he gets home, for his brother to dissect at length and lecture him on everything he's missed.


	18. Chapter 18

Since adopting Tobirama with the full formal ceremony and adding his name to her lineage as her sibling under Toshi and Azami's –who are listed as being born to her parents, but raised by her and Madara– and gifting him with a coat lined with painted silk to properly mark him as a member of her immediate family, Kita's household has accumulated Hatake much as a house with cats accumulates loose fur. She didn't really expect, it, which had probably been an oversight, but none of the Hatake had done _anything_ when Tobirama moved into their house as nominal hostage –had in fact very deliberately changed _nothing_ about their behaviour, which she should probably have paid more attention to– so why would formalising her relationship with him make a difference?

Except it had. The very next _day_ after Tobirama is added into the clan records –Uchiha Tobirama, born to Senju Butsuma and Hatake Kikuno in the eighteenth year of the reign of Kurahashi Hidekata of the Abe Clan, named brother in the second year of the reign of Kurahashi Hidenari of the Abe Clan, under Uchiha Madara in the twenty-first year of his command– Hatake Daikon wanders into the Uchiha compound with his three-year-old nephew and a tiger cub as tall as a fully-grown leopard, wanting to 'compare notes.' A few days later it's Tobirama's cousin Imono leaving her youngest daughter Nasuno with them for a week, because she has 'clan business' to attend to. The four-and-a-half-year-old will be one of the signatories of the Leopard Contract once she's old enough –she has already been approved, just as Yukino has– so that's perhaps less surprising, but a fortnight later thirteen-year-old Hatake Nomi, son of Fuyuno of the boar Contract, wanders in with his seven-year-old brother Maguwa and the trend proceeds from there.

In the four years since an entire _generation_ of teenage and pre-teen Hatake in all shades, shapes and sizes have wandered through Kita's home, some just once, others regularly, and three have failed to leave at all, sleeping in Tobirama's unused bedroom in the western wing of the Clan Hall and lackadaisically wandering around after her children, enabling their various whims and generally managing to extract them from trouble afterwards. Those three are Yukino's second cousin Genmai –Nasuno's older brother– who is now eighteen, fifteen-year-old Kabura, whose mother is Raino of the Dog Contact, and fourteen-year-old Sukino, Nomi's cousin and Shirakami's classmate; one each of the three classic Hatake phenotypes, which is likely a total coincidence but vaguely amusing nonetheless.

Sukino and Kabura's parents don't even _live_ in Konoha! Yet they were and remain entirely unconcerned that their children are living in the Uchiha compound while attending Konoha's school and shinobi academy, and then continue staying there after graduating rather than moving in with closer relatives in the village. Admittedly none of these teenagers are signatories of their respective lineage's summons' contracts, but the Hatake are not usually so careless of their children. Unless they feel that Tobirama, as his generation's sole signatory of the Leopard Contract, is sufficient to count as an appropriate family authority figure.

Kita still has no idea how the Hatake run themselves, even after eleven years of having them in and around the village. There clearly _is_ a well-established structure and precedent for them to behave so uniformly, but what it _is_ she really can't fathom. Tobirama is equally baffled, as he was not raised Hatake so is oblivious to many of their cultural nuances, despite having somehow signalled to his mother's clansmen that he is capable and competent enough to _count_ for whatever this is.

The result however is that when the 'invitation' came through from the Water Daimyo, Tobirama wrote to his sort-of-wards' parents and received replies assuring him that yes, he was free to take their children out of the country to visit a foreign daimyo's court, of course, next time don't bother asking take them wherever. Which implies that Tobirama has been acting _in loco parentis_ for the past four years and will be doing so until the three of them are fully adult, which _also_ seems a bit strange to Kita. She could never be so casual with _her_ children, but with how many young Hatake she's seen paired up with kinsmen they are clearly not closely related to, maybe this is normal for them. Some sort of fostering arrangement to maintain strong ties between the various summoning lineages is her best guess, which makes sense even though she's still not sure how the criteria work.

Genmai can generally be found in Sukumo's general vicinity, Kabura has attached himself to Makuma –who is now a journeyman Uzumaki sealing specialist and writing his name as 'nine demon gap' rather than 'space between two curtains'– and Sukino is both one of Adatara's friends and the person most likely to set off Shirakami's frankly terrible temper.

Kita knows her father had an explosive temper, although she very rarely saw it. Madara has a temper too, but he's more _emotive_ than strictly _angry_ ; Izuna is the irritable, prickly one out of the two of them. Mitama is most like his father in temperament, open-hearted and with so much love to give that it's a little frightening. Takahara and Sukumo are more like her, reserved and keeping their hearts close until they have decided to trust, but Shirakami is hot-blooded, explosive and has to work hard at not holding grudges. Adatara meanwhile firmly refuses to hold grudges yet is surprisingly measured behind the friendly front, Ashitaka seems to be emulating her father's big-heartedness, Minami is more open than his eldest siblings but more measured than Mitama and Ashitaka, Megata is a devious little mischief-maker –apparently just like Izuna was at that age– and Toyouke is too young to really show her true colours yet.

Other members of her household visiting Mizu with them are her nieces Neishi and Kannon acting as attendants to help her and her oldest daughter dress –and act as nannies for her youngest three– Naka-nimble, Naka-stitches, Shizue and Kamui's daughter Rakko from the Outguard as actual entourage –espionage, intelligence and negotiation specialists– to dress impeccably, accept messages on her behalf, hear gossip and –in Naka-nimble's case– get in touch with the local cats. Said local cats will have accents, or so say her older children who were babysat often enough by Maru to have acquired a thorough education in all things feline.

The Uchiha's contract with the cats is with _all_ cats; there are no cats that are not capable of moulding chakra, although most of them prefer to hide that and relatively few bother to learn human speech. It's much easier to mooch off humans when they don't realise you are as intelligent as they are. Kita has had to explain the clan's cat partnership to her younger children a few times, so they wouldn't spoil the cats loitering around the compound and the wider village with scraps of lunch from their bento.

Then there is Yōko as their medic –her children left at home with her husband– Ichimaru who is one of Kita's most recent sealing apprentices to reach mastery and specialises in what he calls 'enforcement,' which is essentially using a seal to make something embody an associated concept. For instance, Ichimaru can write 'shōheki' on a wall panel –meaning obstruction or barrier but including the character for 'wall'– and turn paper or thin wood into a soundproof barricade. He's also very fond of using name characters with moral and poetic associations, with generally subtle but highly effective results.

He's a little morally flexible though –rather takes after his mother Kazue there– so Kita is keeping the twenty-year-old close in an attempt to impart a greater sense of responsibility and altruism by example.

They disembark at the diplomatic jetty in the Water Daimyo's Capital on the central island, which has at _least_ nine different names but _she_ is expected to call Jōhekishima. The island at least; the city is simply Ōkamato, 'gateway to the caldera.'

The Water Daimyo is of course _not_ standing around on the jetty, but the substantial welcoming committee includes several senior ministers, one of Shimazu-dono's high-caste brothers as spokesperson and an honour guard of neatly-uniformed shinobi from a range of different clans, which is all very politic.

At least until Shimazu Katsumochi greets her husband as "Uchiha Madara-sama, Head of the Uchiha Clan, forth dōjō kuge and Hokage."

* * *

Tobirama feels Madara's chakra flex like the backdraught of a kiln; he can't see the man's smile from where he's standing behind and to the left of Kita, but it's probably a little less than pleasant going by the way the shinobi honour guard all abruptly switch from calm readiness to wary unease.

"My greetings to Shimazu Katsumochi-kun," Madara replies, tone oh-so-mild as Kita raises her fan to better obscure the lower half of her face. Tobirama makes sure his chakra is tightly restrained and his expression vaguely bored; he can already tell they are stepping into a viper pit and Madara has decided to be _vicious_. Which, fair enough; that epithet has _implications_.

"I am so looking _forward_ to meeting your brothers," Madara continues, tone still light and almost a purr, "I can tell already that our time here will be an _experience_."

Going by Katsumochi no kimi and his still-welcoming poise, he has entirely missed the subtext of Madara's dramatic change in attitude. The shinobi commander standing behind him however _hasn't_ and the probably-civilian official on the far left has possibly also grasped the nuances; both men's chakra sinks in dread.

From there it is a blur of introductions and titles –mostly variations on _dajin_ and _kyō_ ; how many ministers and ministries does one country _need_ – with the shinobi commander's name tacked on at the end like an afterthought, but _that_ name Tobirama makes an effort to remember. Suikazan Sabaki meets his eyes for a brief instant and Tobirama sees the brilliance and cunning that enabled his rise to his current position, but then he is bowing and the moment passes.

The children catch the mood as they move off towards the palace; the older ones are blank-faced, the youngest with faces set in wary pouts as their eyes dart around between the bodies of their escort. Ashitaka sneaks forwards to grasp his hand; he squeezes it subtly but barely glances down at her.

It has been a long, long time since he has seen nothing but blankness on so many Uchiha faces. It's jarring, how still and flat they are when he is used to shining eyes and mobile expressions, smiles and glares both coming easily, and a home where laughter rings often and tears are rare.

They are led into the palace's guest quarters, which are adjacent to the many courtyards of the daimyo's harem –just a wall separating them, painted red and not much taller than a man– and shown a large area they are expected to occupy. The residence's layout says more about the court's expectations for their behaviour and existing relationships than any amount of gossip could ever convey: for the Uchiha there are several courtyards, the largest with a pond and the buildings surrounding it containing a large and lavish bedroom for Kita which has an adjacent dressing room with a discreet door connecting it to a small waiting room at one end of a back corridor leading the next two smaller bedrooms, clearly intended for her attendants so that one can always be on call. Beyond those are five rooms intended for hosting, in various sizes and décor styles.

In the other direction around the courtyard are several rooms for her children, with a larger shared room for them to sit in when it rains –likely a frequent occurrence here– and another discreet back passage connecting those rooms to a room at the far end intended for the children's attendants and another pair of large shared rooms for guards beside the archway connecting the courtyard to a walled garden, which leads in turn to the smaller courtyard beyond it which is _all_ variously-sized reception rooms, one of which is perfectly-appointed tea-room, with the exception of a private study with a stone-walled security room off it to one side and a dressing room on the other. That courtyard is clearly intended for Madara, yet has no bedroom.

However if once in the walled garden one turns north and walks around the aesthetically clipped pine tree, a discreet path to another, even smaller courtyard is revealed on the left. It is in fact just two sides of one, with walls covered in vines marking the edges of the central garden. In those two buildings are a modest private bedroom and dressing room, another equally-sized bedroom intended for attendants or children –or both– and three reception rooms.

This is very _definitely_ a concubine's suite. In fact there is another locked courtyard opposite this one, likely equally well-appointed, in case of a visiting lord having brought more than one concubine with him. And the lack of bedroom in the lord's courtyard implies he is expected to be either in his wife's bed or a concubine's.

Which, seeing as it is usually him and Kita _both_ sleeping in Madara's bed, is likely going to require discussion once the children are all settled in. Thankfully there are adjacent halls and smaller courtyards beyond the main suite for the rest of the Konohagakure shinobi to stay in.

Thankfully unpacking does not take so very long; in his courtyard Makuma, Genmai and Kabura settle into the spare bedroom while Yukino and Sukino claim what is supposed to be _his_ room on the basis that, "You're not going to sleep there _anyway_ , Tō."

"So where _am_ I going to sleep then, mushroom?" He asks mildly, folding his arms and not hiding his amusement.

His twelve-year-old daughter rolls her eyes at him. "With Oba-sama, _obviously_ , since she got the big bedroom this time," she says matter-of-factly. "Everybody knows you're sleeping with her _anyway_ so just go and unpack your clothes chest there."

"I'll still be hosting guests over here," he warns her.

"Yes, I _know_ , political stupidness, you _said_ ," Yukino replies impatiently, "and if we have guests we'll only host them here if _you_ are here already, if not we'll do it in Oba-sama's courtyard or Oji-sama's. We _know_ , you talked about it!"

Was he this much of a tyrant when _he_ was twelve? He'll have to write to Tōka and ask, even though he already suspects his cousin will assure him he was worse. "I'm going, I'm going," he assures her dryly.

" _Good_ ," is all his incorrigible daughter has to say for herself.

* * *

Madara despises the sly, poisonous intricacy of Water Country's Court and its many-layered intrigue. Fortunately he is not part of it and as a nobleman ranking above all their various houses according to the old Imperial standards for such things, he is permitted a little laxness with the titles. After all, _everyone_ present is 'beneath' him; is it really so surprising that he should have little interest in how they rank against one-another?

That is of course a lie, but it is a very useful lie that allows him to winnow out the ambitious and insecure from the confident and comfortable. Those officials who bristle at simply being addressed as 'Courtier' rather than 'Minister' or 'Lord' or even 'Secretary' resent the reminder that their authority and power has limits, so Madara keeps an eye on them. Those who consider his lack of usage a sign of ignorance to be exploited are also watched; they will also be trouble.

Many of the lower-ranking courtiers greatly enjoy his subtle tail-pulling of the higher castes and those more self-assured upper-ranked ministers find the implied familiarity very gratifying from one of his status. His approach opens certain doors, even as it closes others, but those doors it closes are often ones Madara is pleased to avoid.

Tobirama is also addressing everybody as 'courtier,' but from the opposite direction entirely: under Mizu cultural sensibilities, Tobirama was seized when the Senju tried to rise against their Lord and failed, so he has no caste and is essentially a slave. This is borne out –in their eyes– by his children taking on the clan names of his wife and mother: they have graciously been permitted to escape his clan's shame and his personal subjugation.

Madara has brought no Senju with him. Tobirama bears the Uchiha name, so does not count as such. That he is granted use of Madara's clan name however confirms the value that Tobirama has in Madara's eyes, so it is recognised that despite his lack of _inherent_ status his contributions to his lord's household are valued. He is in many ways safer even than Madara's own children; nobody is going to try and induce him to commit a misstep, because he has no status to lose. Were he any other man they might attempt abduction, but Tobirama is a powerful and respected warrior in his own right so it is unlikely that anyone will so much as attempt to poison him out of spite.

Tobirama using 'courtier' –although he calmly corrects that address if an interlocutor specifies their exact rank– implies that all present are so _above_ his own status that distinguishing their respective rankings seems an exercise in futility. Which is again utterly false –Tobirama knows _all_ the ranks and ministries and their relative standings and points of conflict, because of _course_ he read all the pillow books alongside Kita– but again helpful for winnowing out the trustworthy. Those determined to grind those of lower standing into the dust will insist on his using their titles, while those less dependent on the humiliation of others for self-aggrandisement will accept the implied compliment: they _are_ courtiers, while he is not and he _knows_ it.

Kita meanwhile has deliberately set herself in the middle position: She knows _all_ the ranks and titles, all the forms of address for ministers, harem ranks and various noble standings according to caste, and has somehow memorised enough of those dreadful pillow books to be able to partially decipher the pseudonym code and gain insight into the interpersonal relations and past scandals. Her hands are steady, her voice is soft and her eyes are kind as she listens attentively, occasionally gesturing with her fan in response to particular comments, and the room reorders itself around her.

There was _also_ that memorable first meeting with the Daimyo's inner circle of senior ministers, which was more of a party with the Daimyo's wife present –well his _official_ wife; Water nobility are unfortunately keen on keeping multiple spouses and concubines as a mark of status– along with a number of attendants. The first meeting where an uncle of Shimazu-dono –Katsutaka-jijū, one of Shimazu-dono's chamberlains– got as far as saying,

"Madara-do–"

When the room's atmosphere _flexed_ , abruptly full of that mildly affronted sense of having just witnessed somebody commit a truly _unfortunate_ lapse in etiquette that you are unfortunately not in a position to correct without also violating the proper standard of precedent and manners.

It had been a truly masterful display of complex Intent. Madara took advantage in the sudden lull in conversation.

"Ah, Katsutaka-jijū, I believe my wife would very much like to speak with you. My wife, Uchiha O-Kita Hime." Mizu being _particular_ about titles and ranks means that he unfortunately cannot stick to '-dono' and has to actually remind people that their clan is _technically_ Imperial royalty. Not ruling royalty, but still royal. His wife is a princess in her own right and must be presented as such in a court where titles beyond '-sama' are required for those who outrank you.

Kita bowed, precisely respectful to an older man in a position of trust to his ruler but who does _not_ outrank her. "Katsutaka-jijū is surely aware that the Uchiha are Imperial royalty, descended from a first-rank Imperial princess, Tokiwa Denka." She gazed reproachfully at the chamberlain over the top of her fan, voice soft enough to create the illusion of privacy but the quiet of the rest of the room ensuring that her correction is clearly heard by all. "My lord-husband is a military man, much preferring swift efficacy to proper form, but in such settings as these the formalities must surely be observed."

Madara frankly prefers _not_ to remind people that the appropriate term of address for the Head of the Amaterasu Lineage is 'Highness' –the generic '-sama' is more than sufficient really– but Mizu being so _particular_ about ranking means that he should indeed be holding them to a higher standard. Also Shimazu-dono is _not_ the daimyo to whom he has pledged his allegiance, so Madara has no duty of polite deference.

"That my lord-husband chooses to honour Shimazu-daimyo with more familiar terms is not a thing others might presume upon, Katsutaka-jijū," Kita went on, tone never rising above quietly pleasant as her fan was held perfectly still at a very proper height. "It would not be appropriate."

"Not at all, O-Kita Hime," Shimazu-dono had agreed, stepping in to diffuse the situation, "a thousand thanks for your grace."

Madara had enjoyed the theatre of how his wife's eyes dropped as she fluttered her fan just a little. "My thanks to Shimazu-daimyo for his hospitality," she had murmured, and Madara had taken his cue to set a hand under her wrist and guide her away towards their other guests, so that their host could see to the disposition of his chamberlain without an audience.

He has not seen or sensed that particular man since, although Tobirama could likely tell him whether the chamberlain was still alive when sent from the court in shame or has been executed –or pressured into suicide– for his misstep. He still heartily dislikes the rigid, cloying formality of Water Country and all the many ways it strangles progress and success, but it is always a pleasure to watch his dragon-wife unsheathe her claws and maul somebody without ever relinquishing a single drop of her poise.

* * *

Tobirama rather enjoys watching Kita work, regardless of whether that work is spinning, weaving, patchwork, embroidery, fūinjutsu, weaponry practice, parenting, music, cooking, tea ceremony or social engineering. Currently the task to hand is social engineering, which is masquerading as a musical performance being given by Sukumo to a party of high-caste ladies and their attendants.

Sukumo's koto is impeccable, although it is not her favourite thing. Her clothing is also impeccable, a furisode in coral pink embroidered with flower-carts piled high with vibrant blooms from all seasons, belted with a contrasting red obi embroidered with gold chrysanthemums and other flowers picking up the same colours as the kimono, tied in a tall standing knot indicating her youth and marriageable status. Her hair is piled up on top of her head and held in place with a collection of pretty pins and silk flowers; some of the pins have long, dangling chimes that are only kept from tinkling together by her perfect posture.

Sukumo's face is blank rather than bearing her usual attentive calm, her eyes flat rather than warm. A warrior's face at odds with her courtly garb. Or perhaps not; what Tobirama has seen of courts implies that a blank face is even more of a necessity than on the battlefield.

Kita's daughter is not the focus of this event, something Sukumo is no doubt grateful for; that is Kita herself, intentionally or otherwise, who is wearing a tomesode in rich purple, the obi as much gold as not and intricately woven with multicoloured phoenixes, which are echoed in the comb and sticks securing her modest hairstyle. The outfit, however appropriately subdued for a lady for her age –and Tobirama now knows more of the arbitrary rules that govern women's clothing that he has _ever_ wanted to, Kita's dress-sense and involvement with the Uchiha silk business making such an education impossible to avoid– is nonetheless a very sharp statement. Expensive purple with cloud-like shibori and heavily embroidered with gold phoenixes, delicate detailing in shades of warm orange, cool blue and scattered deep green accents; hers is the only tomesode in the room so artfully and time-consumingly decorated. Her guests' tomesode are a mix of intricate paint, subtle woven designs and embroidered detailing, which Tobirama knows is more normal; most of Kita's tomesode are like that too. Kita brought her _entire_ wardrobe with her, along with a good number of new garments made specially, so as to be able to communicate appropriately as required.

Kita just so happens to be making a _statement_ today. Tobirama suspects that the statement –which will never be articulated verbally– is that anybody _daring_ to believe their son could _possibly_ be good enough for her precious little cloud would do well to rethink that presumption in short order.

It's entirely possible that, socially speaking, Tobirama _shouldn't_ be here –he is a man and this is a ladies' gathering– but Mizu's deeply idiosyncratic rules concerning caste, rank and how both are affected by conquest and military failure place him –as survivor and scapegoat of his brother's inadvisable actions against Madara– very firmly at the bottom of the pecking order. He is essentially invisible to these ladies, part of Kita's furnishing choices while hosting. He is less invisible to their attendants; they are witnessing the rebuke to their mistresses' ambitions and are likely aware that he is as both a fellow witness and a threat. Just because he is elegantly dressed in shades of gleaming pink-tinged grey with minute shibori climbing up the panels of his kimono in hexagon patterns, subtly green-shaded mountains and contrastingly bright cranes flying over them embroidered over his thighs, does not mean he is any less a shinobi. The jug of water standing innocuously on the table in the far corner of the room is very much a weapon and so is the battle-wire folded inconspicuously into his deep blue obi cleverly painted and embroidered with luminous fireflies.

It is equally possible that _his_ outfit is also more costly than Kita's guests' tomesode, which is another exquisitely subtle condemnation of their ambitions. Of course, the irony _there_ is that Kita has likely spent less actual _money_ on her outfits than these women; silk is hard to rear in these storm-swept islands and the range of easily-available dyes is limited, so the finest kimono fabrics and threads are imported, either from Tea or from Fire. The Uchiha meanwhile raise their own silk and have a respectably-sized reeling, dyeing, weaving and painting industry all within Konoha, as well as a good number of highly capable embroiderers, of which Kita is one.

That stunning purple kimono has no doubt cost the clan –and Kita herself– a great deal of time and effort, but it is very plausible that no actual _money_ was spent save in acquiring the gold.

The music ends; Naka-stitches and Rakko enter with tea and a tray of sweets as Tobirama quietly crosses the tatami to assist Sukumo in packing away the koto. He prods her chakra gently, pushing Intent layered with encouragement and appreciation, and is pleased to receive a thread of gratitude and relief in return. Sukumo is not really enjoying the politics of this visit –unlike Takahara, who is taking to it with a somewhat disconcerting verve– but at least silent modesty is sufficient to keep her off the front lines. Mitama is having considerably more difficulty despite being invited to markedly fewer parties; he is only just seventeen, so not yet adult or even close enough to it for his views to have weight. For all its complexities the court still judges those present by civilian standards, so Mitama is too young for his opinions to carry water among adults, although his peers will likely take note. At worst he could be goaded into embarrassing his father with a social misstep, but Mitama is both amiable and fully in control of his temper, so is unlikely to cause overt offense.

Sukumo is still eighteen, but being a girl means that her parents may choose to marry her off before she is twenty. Not that they will –or will expect her to marry at all if she doesn't want to– but that is the expectation of her social class. Kita made sure her daughter was aware of this well before they left Konoha, but Sukumo was clearly not expecting either the intensity of the scrutiny or the pressure of constantly being on display.

Tobirama also dislikes that part. He has no idea how Kita can cope with having her every move dissected and weighed for intent and implication for hours and days on end. Compared to _that_ , it is almost a relief to be classed as a decorative accessory rather than a person. Nobody studies the furnishings for very long, so he is free to observe others with his eyes, nose and other senses.

* * *

Kita does not precisely _enjoy_ the many-layered jockeying for advancement, point-scoring and the necessity of policing every last nuance of her presentation, but she knows she is capable and there is an unavoidable thrill to victory in any kind of contest. In fact it is all too easy to get carried away and forget that she does not _need_ to win every clash, to prove her wits and skill at every turn and claim the spoils of victory.

None of these people have power over her. She is a guest here, and upon returning home will not ever visit them again. Better to be gracious, give ground and secure allies than to trample those around her and make only enemies.

Tajima did not train her with generosity in mind, but she has made a point of it despite him. Or possibly at least in part _to_ spite him. There are moments when grace would be perceived as weakness and lead to harm being done to those in her care, so then she is unrelentingly firm, but at other times she is as kind as she can be.

Kindness is rare in this court, a true luxury only the most powerful –or the most powerless– can afford. Kita takes care to deal it with an even hand, never speaking when silence will do and making an effort to gentle her posture whenever possible. Kimie-hime reads her intent easily, but accepts it as courtesy not incapacity. Kita is thereafter introduced to Kimie's two daughters and, a while later, several daughters of Shimazu-dono's concubines who are less than able to withstand the rigours of court.

Kita suspects that some of these concubines' children are _not_ Shimazu-dono's at all, but one does not comment on such things in Water; it is fairly common when the harem is so large and most of the court's ministers and senior officials are chosen _from_ those sons raised in the harem, who get the best education and grow up alongside their future ruler. No doubt some of these girls have fathers who are supplying additional funds to their mothers, and are aware of half-siblings beyond the palace walls who –once grown– will support their futures and expect to be supported in turn once advantageous matches have been made.

They are very sweet girls, all five of them in variously-patterned vivid cyan furisode that mark them as daughters of the harem–ranging in age from eighteen to thirteen– but even from just from one afternoon playing scroll games with them along with Sukumo, Adatara, Yukino and Sukino she can tell these pretty, sheltered, well-educated ladies do not have the steel in their spines needed to survive in this crocodile-pit of a court.

Kimie-hime is suggesting with her _words_ that she would like Kita to consider these young ladies as wives or concubines for her sons –although the oldest might also 'do' to provide additional children to Kita's _own_ husband– but her general manner and underlying concern imply that she would settle for anything that removed them from the court and Water Country altogether. At her next meeting Kita idly mentions the girls and asks after their mothers; this reveals that Yasue's mother was a childhood friend who has since died of a fever, leaving behind the eighteen-year-old and her six-years-younger brother, Dene's mother is from a shinobi clan but was given to the daimyo due to being of a meek and shrinking disposition, Kurue and Kotoe's mother finds their gentle natures extremely disappointing and Tomie can't keep a secret to save her life, which is what got her own shinobi father executed four years ago.

Kimie-hime does not specify, but going by Tomie's ruddy hair her father was probably a Terumī and Dene's mother is specifically named as a Kurirare, which does at least explain why the sixteen-year-old is so _tall_. Her mother is likely also tall; possibly _taller_.

Yasue's main problem seems to be that she is not ambitious, which is only a fault in a court as vicious and thrusting as this one. Dene meanwhile is very, very quiet and visibly self-conscious about her appearance, but once she starts talking she is brutally, uncomfortably honest and utterly direct, made all the more unfortunate by how perceptive she is. Kita can see how that might cause offense, but it is again not really a _problem_ ; she likely has a great many shinobi cousins who are exactly the same.

Kurue and Kotoe are just… sweet. Kind. They offer her girls the last of the mochi simply because they can and beam delightedly when thanked, then utterly fail to leverage that gratitude and indeed forget they ever had fewer sweets than their guests in the first place. Kita suspects she might be able to entrust them both to the Akimichi and see each one happily married shortly after turning twenty, but she will have to talk to Chōmu before committing there.

Tomie is a little more problematic, partly because the girl clearly now _knows_ she utterly fails at lying and that this is considered a bad thing, so visibly panics when asked questions that skirt near secrets and unsubtly changes the subject. However she _is_ only fifteen, so time, patience and careful teaching will cure that.

The question is, does Kita _want_ to take responsibility for five gently-raised maidens whose only skills are in music, poetry, fashion, calligraphy and flower arranging. The uncharitable answer is 'no' –she has nine other children at home already plus Tobirama's two and three adjacent Hatake, making fourteen altogether– but the truth is that she _could_ do it. And she _does_ want to see what these girls would make of life beyond the walls of the palace, and how their souls would grow away from the toxicity that is smothering them. There is a certain joy to teaching, as she knows full well from so many years of seal-work tutoring.

Kita does not say yes. But she also does not say _no_ , and invites the girls over to spend more time with her daughters and their friends.

Kimie-hime in return invites her to tea _inside_ the harem, as well as to a range of other parties for court ladies, and idly suggests that perhaps she should have Tobirama deliver correspondence to her various new acquaintances. Recognising this as an invitation to snoop more effectively and better gauge the undercurrents, Kita asks her brother how he feels about the idea.

"I would prefer it to being decorative all day," he tells her dryly, "and I might even manage to borrow the sparring fields the local shinobi are using in between deliveries." And thereby get a feel for the local ninja clans' various attitudes towards their newly-consolidated nation. Not everything, but even a sense of how those shinobi with palace access –not just the high-caste ones– feel about this change will be useful in laying groundwork for future educated guesses.

"Don't forget your coat." It wouldn't do for him to be mistaken for somebody else, or even for somebody to _claim_ they'd mistaken him for someone else. He might want to take his armour too if he's going to spar, but the coat is a clear identifier even from a distance although with his white hair and the vivid red slashes up his jaw and chin he's hard to mistake for anybody else. She's become unused to seeing them so wide and bright, but then again they are not at home so it is to be expected.

Tobirama smiles at her, thin and faintly wicked. "I promise not to start any fights, imōto."

Kita makes sure her scepticism shows clearly on her face; Tobirama _loves_ provoking people, for all he is usually fairly subtle about doing so. His favourite target is Izuna, but that does not mean other people are _exempt_. Especially when, as is clearly the case right now, he is bored and lacking in other means to entertain himself. Seal theory is all very well but there's only so much a person can read before wanting to experiment and it's not really safe to do much practicing here.

The smile morphs into a smirk. "I won't throw the first punch and I'll mind my manners, I _promise_ imōto-chan. Now where do you need letters delivering to?"

Kita caves. She will probably regret this, but then again who is she to deny her brother his fun?

* * *

Once the shinobi of Water Country –who call the village their daimyo is building in the western mountains of Jōhekishima 'Kirigakure'– realise that Tobirama is deliberately making daily usage of the training fields attached to the palace, he immediately gets markedly more interesting company.

Hōzuki Gengetsu, the Water Daimyo's shinobi commander, is a powerful warrior with a cheerful demeanour, poor memory and a budding enmity with Mū of Earth, who is the current commander of the Earth Daimyo's shinobi forces. He is an amusing sparring partner but a far more interesting conversationalist; he cares deeply for the shinobi under his command and their welfare, so is keen to interrogate Tobirama on the bureaucratic details of how Konohagakure's mission system works, as well as the particulars of its shinobi academy.

Shinju Kuroten, the second-in-command, is rather more opaque than his commander. About five years younger and dressed in expensive but undecorated clothing that gives little of his background away, he has the black irises and sclerae that characterise his clan –pearl-divers before they were shinobi, who turned to warfare to defend their fishing grounds– and wears a delicate strand of well-sized lilac pearls around his head. He watches much, says little, smiles not at all and spars as one who has never learned to hold back from breaking bones.

Tobirama has seen warriors like this before. Unlike his commander, Kuroten does not care about his subordinates; he cares about achieving the goals placed before him by his commanding officer. While that is a passable attitude under a perceptive and personable commander such as Gengetsu, should the Hōzuki die and Kuroten be promoted to replace him then the budding village of Kirigakure is likely to become a very harsh and unforgiving place very quickly. A fine shinobi perhaps and very powerful one –he and Gengetsu are remarkably evenly matched– but an indifferent commander of men on the field and a poor leader off it.

Shinju Kuroten would leave civilian children to starve because they contribute nothing to his lord's military might and are a drain on his command's resources. Such men should not be permitted to rise so high, but the shinobi village the Water Daimyo is building is intended as a military outpost that provides training to those making their oaths to him, not as a mixed settlement. However it _will_ be a mixed settlement; if nothing else those shinobi need to eat, sleep, relax and be entertained when off-duty. Many shinobi are also married, and would greatly object to not being able to keep their families close.

That will be trouble if not addressed; Tobirama does his best to criticise Gengetsu's vision and ask challenging questions as they spar, which the meticulously-groomed man laughingly appreciates. His silently watching second does not comment, but perhaps Tobirama's words will be taken on board regardless.

It takes ten days for someone ask the inevitable question. Interestingly, it is Kuroten asking.

"So what did you do, for your lord spare your clan the consequences your brother's folly?"

"What did _I_ do?" Tobirama echoes, allowing his bemusement to show while concealing his pain.

Kuroten nods. "You must have done something. Or else you would be dead and your nephew with you at the very least. But you live and he lives, if humiliated and diminished, and your clan may yet rise again. Madara Denka _should_ have killed you, had he truly wished to establish his power and authority, but he compromised and opened himself to further dissent and rebellion."

The external position on the proper consequences of his brother's impulsiveness is always deeply unpleasant. "I begged for mercy."

Gengetsu hums. "And you received it! However I do not feel that merely _begging_ is sufficient to receive mercy from a warrior and leader of such power and cunning as Fire Country's Hokage."

Tobirama decides he dislikes Madara's new epithet just as much as the man himself does. It suggests that it is Madara, not Kurahashi-daimyo, who _truly_ rules Fire Country. "Kita-hime spoke for me," he concedes, more grudgingly than he truly feels; this information is hardly secret.

The commander of Kirigakure grins. "Most men would take it amiss, having their wife plead for the life of a handsome warrior such as yourself. Especially since you lived with them for half a year when the Uchiha first treated with the Senju and rumour paints you and Madara Denka's charmingly shrewd wife as having been close ever since."

"I would have thought you would know better than to listen to the creative hyperbole of gossips."

Gengetsu laughs. "Oh, but Tobirama-san, there is so much of value to be found in the words of the gossips! For they may misunderstand the motives and circumstances, but they are not blind to what is there to be seen."

Tobirama considers his options while adjusting his plain happuri and picks a single truth to tell. "You've seen his heir, Shirakami-kun?"

"The younger princeling who glares so ferociously when confronted with the realities of our castes?" Gengetsu clearly has his own misgivings with the system, but does not voice them. "So interesting for Madara Denka to choose his third son to inherit rather than his first or second born, when Takahara Hiko is so subtle and well-spoken and Mitama Hiko so charming and personable."

There is a question there, but Tobirama is not going to answer it. "Shirakami-kun was unexpectedly premature; I was with Kita-hime at the time and assisted her." Let the implications of the nature of his assistance fall where they may; these men are unlikely to independently arrive at the conclusion that he delivered a child in the snow with only a teenager and a leopard to offer moral support.

"So he owes you his heir, and perhaps also his wife," Kuroten says quietly. "And he repaid that debt in sparing you when your brother's deeds demanded your death."

He seems satisfied with that answer, it appealing to his evidently utilitarian mindset. Tobirama could say that Madara is not at all the kind of man to weigh people by their utility and honour his debts only when it becomes unavoidably necessary, but does not. He is not among allies.

"And of course a leader sparing a dissident's brother cannot then turn around and execute more distant kinsmen," Gengutsu muses. "That would show favouritism or imply you betrayed your brother's intentions to your liege, neither of which are at all Madara Denka's style, I feel. And so your loyalty and honour in protecting your lord's family were rewarded!" He beams. "Come, let us spar again; I wish to try something different against that fūinjutsu of yours."

"If you wish to suffer another defeat who am I to deny you," Tobirama counters, smirking; it has been incredibly satisfying to emerge the victor in three spars out of four with each man singly, and to hold his own in winning one in two even when they gang up on him.

"Oh no, this time _I_ will be the victor!" Gengetsu declares cheerfully. "You may have the considerable advantage of regularly facing your peerless liege across the sparring field, but I _will_ prove myself the better water master!"

"I am yet to see evidence of your claims." Tobirama adjusts his armour –Uchiha made and markedly higher quality than anything he'd _ever_ owned before being officially adopted– and refastens the front of his coat. It will be heavy once soaked through, but that is an excellent defence against Gengetsu's exploding clone technique.

Gengetsu grins, sharp and delighted. "Then allow me!"

* * *

They've been in Mizu for a month now and will be returning home soon, but it has been a month of _all_ manner of interesting surprises. Takahara, after three weeks of being politely non-committal and deferential to her and Madara when various nobles tries to push their daughters at him, eventually confessed that there's someone he likes in Konoha, but isn't sure they'd marry him since that would mean leaving their clan. Kita hugs her oldest son and extracts a promise that he will _talk_ to the young lady in question once they get home, so as to clear the air and make sure they are both reading from the same page.

Sukumo meanwhile has decided that she wants to focus on sealing, not marriage. Kita is all in favour –there is no _need_ for her to marry– and has coaxed out of her daughter that she would rather like to run a calligraphy class separate from the school, for older teens and adults to work on their brushwork without feeling humiliated by sitting in a room full of children. It's an excellent idea; Kita suggests using the Uchiha Guest Hall in the village as a venue, since it has a large reception room and good light. Sukumo has also acquired an osprey trained as a hawking bird, which being a gift from a fellow young lady rather than a young man, her daughter had no qualms accepting; Kita suspects that there will be ongoing correspondence with Terumī Rai-chan.

Mitama meanwhile is… unexpectedly taken with Dene, who is a full head taller than him despite his recent growth spurt, and they have found common ground in classical literature and dexterity games. Kita probably shouldn't be surprised that Dene's shinobi-born mother had passed those on to her daughter, but Rakko informed her the other day that Mitama asked her help in teaching Dene to handle a spear, it being more suited to her height than a naginata, so Kita knows this is serious.

She has spoken to Kimie-hime, seeing as Dene _is_ Shimazu-daimyo's daughter, and the prospect of a _kuge_ engagement for one of the young ladies in her care went down very well indeed. Kimie-hime suggested the other four girls would do well as attendants –it wouldn't _do_ to send a gently-raised young lady off all alone– and Kita did not disagree, so that is five more teenagers to care for.

They can afford it, but teenage girls are never straightforward. She has spoken to Chōmu, but he hasn't heard back from Chōtai or Chōkō just yet so nothing is settled there.

Makuma and Shirakami meanwhile have developed strong feelings about the entire political edifice that Water Country is built around, the caste system in particular, and there have been various furious rants. In private, thankfully, but Kita can see how hard it's been for her husband and Tobirama to explain to these two bright, idealistic boys that the world is deeply flawed and there _isn't_ anything the two of them can do about it in the short term that would make things _better_. People have to make those choices for themselves.

Hours and days are spent talking about the last decade of the feud before the treaty, of all the things she and her husband did to coax the Uchiha clan into _wanting_ peace so that when the time finally came they would _accept_ rather than stew and hate and subtly oppose, and while Shirakami very clearly finds the prospect of dedicating so much time and effort to something that may not even _work_ very daunting, he isn't giving up on the idea.

It's a little trickier for Makuma, because as an Uzumaki he _could_ work more directly to create change, but doing so would bring greater risks for his extended family. After all, wanting to overthrow the caste system would be classed as sedition and rabble-rousing, which could be used as an excuse for war. Uzu is small, no matter the power of its seal-masters; it could not withstand the full military might of a larger nation in the long term.

Adatara meanwhile has acquired a teenage boy. Kita isn't entirely sure _how_ , but from what her daughter has said and Naka-stitches has added to, there was some back-room gambling going on at one of the mixed parties for young people and Adatara put her Uchiha reflexes and people-reading skills to good use clearing out various incautious young men at cards. One of those young men, while trying to win back a likely historically-significant piece of jade, offered a casteless half-sibling as collateral and Adatara had –perhaps justifiably– decided that Mizuryū Arinishin did not _deserve_ his brother if he was willing to bet him in a card game.

Kita arranges for the heirloom jade to be discreetly exchanged for another piece of carved jade of equal monetary value by Mizuryū-kyō –who was no doubt _extremely displeased_ to learn of his son's reckless gambling habit– but allows her daughter to keep Shibuki, as the fourteen-year-old is called. Shibuki and Arinishin had their mother in common not their father –hence why a teenager was allowed to use another teenager as a gambling chip– and the slightly older boy's father had likely been a slave. Legally speaking, their mother could have named herself Shibuki's sole parent and made him her heir; she in fact likely _had_ done so, but she died before her firstborn was old enough to contest her husband's claim to her inheritance on the behalf of their shared children and Shibuki was then firmly sidelined into being chattel. His younger siblings' chattel, as part of their maternal inheritance.

Dark-haired, oddly black-eyed –the full eye, not just the iris– and fair-skinned, Shibuki has a shinobi's build and reflexes, having been trained as a bodyguard to his half-sisters –who are reportedly _not_ pleased with their brother's carelessness– and decent –if barely trained– chakra reserves. Tobirama immediately takes over his education as the only experienced Water-user in their contingent and the boy is slowly opening up.

Madara teases that Adatara is the child most like her mother, fierce fire wishing to be balanced by water, a little dragon stealing a treasure from an unappreciative half-sibling. Kita whacks him with her fan.

Ashitaka, Minami, Megata and Toyouke are thankfully all too young for these kinds of unsupervised shenanigans, but Yukino and Sukino have somehow acquired a trio of very _odd_ swords and insist they were 'buried treasure' so there's nobody to give them back to, Kabura has acquired a pair of marten summons through mysterious means –potentially creating another summoning lineage for the Hatake– and Genmai has been caught several times in the vicinity of places he really should _not_ have been. Including the daimyo's harem.

Not actually caught _trespassing_ though, which Kita is grateful for. She is very certain however that he _has_ been trespassing and Tobirama agrees with her. She suspects her brother has _also_ been trespassing, but doesn't ask; he's a grown shinobi and more than stealthy enough to avoid getting caught.

The last major event before they leave is a sakura-viewing party. It's a very late one, but special because it's up in the northern mountains of Jōhekishima where the weather is still cold and brisk, and the local stunted, twisted sakura trees bloom relatively late. Due to the long, steep climb and dubious weather the event is for very fit adults only, although Kimie-hime and a few other ladies get around that by having pairs of shinobi carry them in odd, palanquin-like contraptions. Kita just runs alongside her husband, her many layers of kimono, accessories and obi alongside modesty screens in the umbrella bag slung across Naka-nimble's back so she can change once they arrive. The men are allowed to get away with military garb for this outing, but ladies are not. Hinaka also has her attendants carry a change of clothes, but Chōmu's team-mate Nara Nameraka does not bother.

It is actually a very nice picnic: the spreading grove of sakura is right on the cliff-top, the bright dusting of pink vividly atmospheric against a background of roiling slate clouds towering along the horizon and vibrant sunshine overhead. It probably won't translate well into an ink painting, but she still memorises it for herself. The Kurama may well be interested in turning the moment into an oil painting, as the quality of the light here is perfect for oils.

Or at least, it's very nice right up until the Sanbi emerges from the shallow waters at the base of the cliffs – _too_ shallow to hide a bijū _how_ did it _do_ that– to loom overhead and peer down at the gathered picnickers, water dripping from its craggy head.

* * *

Madara freezes in horror as the Sanbi looms over them, chakra abruptly unmissable and head higher than the tall cliffs they are sitting on.

Standing on, now; he and a few other shinobi have managed to shake off their horror at the looming pressure bearing down on them but there's no _time_ –

Hashirama's death rises to the forefront of his mind and he _cannot_ –his wife and son are _here_ , his son is _beside him_ he _cannot_ –

Kita rises to her feet in her soft green kimono painted with deeper green leaves and large, richly-tinted peonies and bows gracefully, kin to elder kin, chakra as gentle and bright as the pre-dawn blue of her obi under its golden koi embroidery. "Son of the Sage, greetings."

 _What_.

The Sanbi focuses on her with its single open eye, then _speaks_.

"Daughter of Indra," it –he?– says, voice oddly high and young for one so large and ancient. "Greetings."

"I am Uchiha Kita," his unflappable, fearless, _astonishing_ wife forges on, rising from her bow. "May I present my husband, Uchiha Madara, Indra's heir," she gestures at him and Madara manages to bow appropriately, "and the brother of my heart, Uchiha Tobirama." She waves again.

The bijū peers at Tobirama, who has also managed to bow and is standing just close enough to Kita to shield her if they are attacked, his chakra surging under his skin like a waterfall in a narrow gorge. "Son of Ashura," it declares. "You have stopped arguing with Indra's kin, then?"

Madara's mind rebels against the notion of their centuries-long feud with the Senju as an _argument_. Tobirama manages slightly better, chakra forcibly settling:

"We have indeed, Sanbi-san."

The bijū tilts its head in a distinctly cat-like manner. "My name," it declares, eyes moving back to Kita and utterly ignoring their terrified, frozen audience, "is Isobu."

"I am very pleased to make your acquaintance, Isobu-san," Kita says firmly. "It is always a joy to meet with kin, however distant."

Isobu makes a soft, pleased sound that nonetheless echoes around the cliffs. Madara _cannot_ reconcile this light, boyish voice and shy manners with the roaring, howling _horror_ that chased him across the ocean for most of a day and repeatedly did its best to obliterate him.

"I would speak with Indra's heir and Ashura's son," the bijū announces. "It is a family matter."

Shimazu-dono finds his voice. "Then we shall of course depart, Isobu-sama," he says, bowing as a daimyo to a foreign power. His shinobi immediately begin corralling the ministers and other guests away from the cliff edge, the frozen terror of those first few moments cracking in favour of near-panicked flight. Madara catches Hinaka's eye and nods firmly; the Hyūga Heiress steels herself and sets about calmly instructing the rest of their party, moving away from the cliff edge and pairing up the restrictively-dressed ladies with broad-shouldered shinobi so they can get down the cliffside –or at least part-way down– without needing to change first.

Kita does not flee. Madara walks up to stand beside her, Takahara at his heels, _wishing_ he could convince his wife to leave with their entourage as well. But he can't; he doesn't truely _want_ her to go when he knows he _needs_ her well-mannered fearlessness in the face of the Sanbi's oppressive chakra in order to keep his own nerves in check. He would also like _Takahara_ to leave, but his oldest son's face is mulish and he can't afford to make a scene.

"Are you often in this area, Isobu-san?" Kita asks, fan lowered and face alight with curiosity. Small talk? _How_? Is there _nothing_ his wife fears?

"Not _very_ often, Kita-san," Isobu replies, chin dipping to peer more closely at her, now with both eyes open. "But I recognised your husband's presence and wanted to ask him some questions."

Madara feels an icy shiver up his spine. Not only does he now have irrefutable evidence that the bijū are fully sentient thinking beings, but it _recognises_ his chakra. Not attempting to use his sharingan on it was a _very_ good choice.

It takes remarkably _little_ time for the four of them to be alone on the cliff-top; Madara waits for Tobirama to meet his eyes and nod, indicating that they are _truly_ without witnesses, then bows shortly. "Please ask your questions, Isobu-san."

"You threw a _corpse_ at me."

Madara swallows hard and bows deeply. "My sincerest apologies for my thoughtless mistake, Isobu-san."

The bijū eyes him. "You didn't do it on purpose?"

"Not at all, Isobu-san. I was seeking to prevent the escape of a man who had harmed the children of my distant kinsmen, the Hyūga."

"Nyachiku's kin, Isobu-san," Takahara says abruptly, stepping out from behind Madara.

"I remember Nyachiku-nee," Isobu agrees, attention shifting to peer at Takahra. "What is your name?"

Madara's son bows, not as fearless as he is presenting himself but trusting his mother. "My name is Uchiha Takahara, Isobu-san. Madara-sama and Kita-sama are my parents."

Isobu hums, turning his eye back on Madara. "I thought you did it on purpose."

"It was never my intent to cause you any harm, or disturb you in any way, Isobu-san." He is apologising to a bijū. Is this real? Is he dreaming?

Isobu nods. "I accept your apology, Madara-san. Why did you hit Ashura's heir after he bound me?"

Madara swallows hard. "He intended to _permanently_ bind you and all the rest of your kin, Isobu-san," he replies quietly. "It was madness. I could not allow it."

"You fought him for me? For my brothers?" How can a bijū taller than the cliffs of Jōhekishima sound so _much_ like little Minami-kun?

"Yes, Isobu-san. For you and your brothers, and also for my own children. If he had done it, it would not have been a secret, and people would have been afraid of his family and mine. They would have attacked us out of fear."

"Yes, humans do that," Isobu agrees, voice steady. "You freed me afterwards."

Madara is unspeakably grateful that the subject of Hashirama's death is _not_ touched upon. "I had and have no quarrel with you, Isobu-san," he says carefully. "Why would I not free you?"

The Sanbi lowers its head, so close that Madara is mere metres from its snout. He realises belatedly that it is not opening its mouth to speak; the words are being projected through its chakra somehow, an auditory genjutsu. He had not noticed it.

"Are we friends then, Madara-san?" Isobu asks.

"If you would like to be friends, we would be honoured to accept your friendship, Isobu-san," Kita says, coming to his rescue as his voice fails him. "We will have to arrange more visits; perhaps to the coast of Fire Country? That would be easier for us."

"I would like that," Isobu says, almost shyly.

"Then of course we will be friends, and visit you," Madara manages past the hysterical incredulity bubbling up in his throat. "I am sure my other children will love to meet you." Takahara is not the only one to have inherited a measure of their mother's unreasonable fearlessness.

"We will be sailing home in five days' time, Isobu-san," Kita adds. "Or would you prefer Isobu-kun?"

"I would like to be Isobu-kun," the bijū murmurs.

"Isobu-kun then. Would you accompany us as we sail home? Then you can meet our children and we can talk for longer without imposing on our hosts here."

"Yes, that sounds very nice," Isobu decides. "I will see you in five days, then." With that he sinks back beneath the cliffs, _somehow_ vanishing underwater despite the bay being very _clearly_ not deep enough for him.

Madara swallows hard. "Kita, my heart, there are days when your lack of fear _terrifies_ me," he admits frankly into the resounding quiet left by the bijū's absence. Even the birds have fled, leaving only the distant echo of the waves below.

"What would fear have achieved, husband?"

His dragon-wife has no concept of how rare such an attitude is. "Nothing at all, beloved," he admits with a hysterical chuckle, "but when faced with such a powerful and dangerous entity as a bijū, fear is _natural_."

Kita glances over at him and smiles, raising her fan to hide her mouth so only the curving crescents of her eyes are visible. "Then I must regret to inform my lord husband that he has married a most unnatural woman."

The hilarity strikes Madara all at once and he bursts out laughing so hard he actually falls over. He can hear his own hysteria as he sprawls on the grass but his wife, son and brother-in-law do not call him out on it; in fact Tobirama and Takahara both join him even as his wife sits back down on an abandoned blanket and giggles behind her fan at them as they wrestle with one-another. It's a relief and a wonder, to somehow _not_ be dead after that.

* * *

The morning after the interrupted picnic Tobirama wakes before the dawn, eases himself out of Kita's arms –and from Madara's– and pads silently into the adjacent dressing room to wash, stark naked in the half-light with his hair hanging past his shoulders. He is not _usually_ remotely interested in sex, but the violent terror and sheer relief of surviving yesterday's bijū encounter had aroused deeply-rooted instincts in all three men. Takahara had thrown himself into sparring with Hinaka upon their return to the palace, her relief matching his and the rigours of the fight enabling them both to burn through their other emotions and bleed them off into honest exertion.

Tobirama's terror was far deeper and more pervasive than Takahara's though, and his relief correspondingly more profound. Takahara has every faith in his parents' ability to protect him; Tobirama had known better and Madara had no such illusions either. So after they had returned to their suite in the palace and reassured everybody of their wellbeing, Kita had dragged both himself and her husband into her bedroom and locked the door, so they could all settle their nerves without having to keep up a courtly mask. Tobirama recognises he was as much an instigator of what followed as Madara, and honestly regrets none of it.

Kita had very willingly indulged them both, although Tobirama doubts very much that he will ever feel like that again. Now that he _knows_ that bijū can be reasoned with, future encounters will be less viscerally disturbing to his equilibrium.

The quiet contentment in his mind and body is very pleasant, his thoughts steady as he wipes himself down with a cloth and a bowl of water. In a few days they will see the bijū again –which Madara will be informing the Water Daimyo of in an audience today, no doubt– but they will also be going home, and now he is no longer desperately containing his terror Tobirama is inclined to trust Isobu's assertion of friendship. Why would such a powerful entity bother with deception?

Thoroughly clean, Tobirama dries off and then picks up a comb to try and instil a little order in his hair. It's probably going to take some time; he didn't braid it before sleeping, didn't even comb it –he is in fact not entirely sure where the braided silk hair tie went after Madara pulled it out– so it will have tangled badly while he slept.

He is settled on a stool still wrestling with the comb when Kita comes up behind him and gently takes it out of his hands, setting it to one side and taking down a jar of hair oil. Tobirama watches her rub it over her hands, then relaxes into her as she steps behind him and teases lightly oily fingers through his hair, loosening the knots and smoothing away the tangles.

When she eventually takes up the comb again it barely catches anywhere, pulling briskly but not unpleasantly on his scalp. Tobirama leans into her touch, eyelids drooping in pleasure at the soothing and unhurried contact.

Kita has always helped him with his hair since he started growing it out. It's a relief to know that isn't going to change, even though last night they all three stepped over boundaries they never intended to so much as approach. That _will_ have to be addressed though.

Tobirama doesn't move as Kita pulls his hair up and ties it in a topknot; she much have found his hair-tie. Then once she lets go he turns to speak to her.

She's wearing a dull pink nemaki, but it's not tied closed and by the lack of creases very clearly hasn't been slept in. Her hair hangs almost to her knees, loosely braided and only faintly dishevelled, and neither hair nor nightwear hide the red bite-marks on her upper chest and thighs. Tobirama quickly looks away from the evidence of his attentions, only to catch his reflection in the mirror across the room and realise that she had _not_ found his missing hair-tie: instead one of her own hair ribbons holds his topknot in place, the rich peony purple vibrant against the ivory-white of his hair in the diffuse morning light.

"What now then?" He asks, feeling vaguely defeated. This is a trap of his own making and he is very thoroughly caught.

She shrugs in his peripheral vision. "Whatever you want, Tobirama."

"Whatever _I_ want?" Last night clarified what _he_ wants and what _Kita_ would like from their relationship do not line up most of the time; how her scent changed when he ran his hands over her bare skin and her shivers as he left those bruised marks with his teeth made _that_ much abundantly clear. In the sober light of day, Tobirama also isn't entirely sure how to _correctly_ interpret Madara's failure to throw him bodily out of the bedroom inside the first five minutes. Or the various bruises and bite-marks than have been left on his _own_ skin.

She sighs. "You are my brother and precious treasure, regardless of all else. I have you, I have my husband, I have our children; why should I compromise all that pursing something I _know_ you do not want to give me? Why should I hurt us both like that, and Madara besides? I want you to be _happy_ , Tobirama; you have been. Do you _want_ last night to change anything? Because it does not seem to me that you do."

Tobirama considers her words. She's right, annoyingly. About everything. Still, he wasn't expecting her to just... "You know me far too well."

"I pay attention."

It is a terribly intimate thing, to be known. More intimate by far than the messy physicality of what the three of them were doing to one-another for all of yesterday evening and half the night besides. Tobirama turns back to meet her eyes:

"Thank you."

He can't say he loves her –he has never loved _anybody_ with the fire and fervency that Madara radiates whenever Kita is in his line of sight– but she is no less profoundly dear to him for that. Her acceptance and understanding of his limitations mean more than he feels comfortable articulating.

She smiles, and he knows she has heard everything he is never going to say. "Would you help me with my hair, Tobirama?"

"Of course."


	19. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of homages to 'Dreaming of Sunshine' in this part.

Uchiha Tokimi runs towards the screaming, Shimura Danzo keeping pace beside her, both of them in their new Police-issue fūinjutsu-reinforced indigoes and armour-weave gaiters, kote over forearms securing the sleeves of their respective clan haori, the standard orange sashes keeping everything neatly in place. It's not her first time running towards terrified screaming –Tokimi firmly suppresses the indelible memory of shattered buildings, blasted earth and the bloody smear that she only later learned had been her uncle Hijiri– and after a decade and a half of diffusing fights, hauling drunks off to calm down in the cells and listening to testimonies, she knows how these things go.

It's barely been seconds and more people are screaming. They reach the Kurama district at the same time as another patrol pair –Akimichi Torifu and Hyūga Hiyake, thank all the kami– take a split-second to pull barrier seals and suppression nets from their hold-alls –the belt-pouch version of the Uchiha Clan umbrella bags, only feasible for smaller or foldable items but with equal overall capacity– and then dash down the main street towards the source of the noise.

There is a lean, ash-white crocodile in a mangled azure kimono sprawled in the middle of an intersection, seven metres long and shaking a dead body in its jaws. A _very_ dead body; the head –long hair tangled in a comb, possibly female– is on the far side of the street, and half an arm still in a Kurama-marked sleeve is discarded on the near side of the bloody splatter painted up the wall of a stationer's shop and across the cobbles.

More bloody spatter is painted across the crocodile.

Most of the screaming is coming from people fleeing; Tokimi ignores Torifu and Hiyake keeping other shinobi back from the scene and focuses on the crocodile.

The crocodile whose chakra feels awfully familiar and has a small, wailing crane-print bundle lying far too close to its front right foot. That ruined kimono across its shoulders with a printed cloud pattern is also very familiar.

"Toki?" She doesn't glance at Danzo; she knows he's backing her up, a step back and to the side.

"Hail the Uchiha compound; we need Oba-sama or Madara-sama down here _now_." She's heard the stories about Kita-ba's initial Mangekyō transformation, and all the other stories about Toyotama and what sets them off. She's going to walk into the danger zone because she is a _police officer_ and that is her _job_ , but she's doing so well aware that she might lose a limb talking her cousin down. She'd much rather _not_ have her arm bitten off, but there's even odds of it. Hopefully her cousin will be satisfied by the dismemberment already completed and not feel inclined to turn a one-off into a spree.

"Stay back," she adds; "this is a clan thing."

" _Tokimi_." Danzo _hates_ it when she makes him stand down and be rearguard, even though he _knows_ he's better at securing the scene than she is. They've re-written half of police procedure with his identification and security fūinjutsu; when he eventually retires from street patrol there'll be a senior forensics position with his name on it even if Hidaka-ji has to _create_ it for him.

"We're de-escalating remember, I'm less likely to be seen as a threat." It's why the Police continue to allow their members to wear clan colours: a shinobi having a meltdown is less likely to lash out at somebody who is clearly a fellow clansman.

"If you lose a limb I will carve 'I told you so' on the prosthetic replacement." He does step back and reach for the speaker seal on his collar though, which is what matters.

"So noted." Tokimi puts her seals and net away, straightens her spine and lets her chakra coil around her, no longer tightly contained under her skin, then scuffs a sandal on the cobbles and steps forward.

The crocodile turns, daintily lifting a clawed foot over the wailing, blood-spattered bundle as it settles in to eyeball Tokimi. The visible eye is red, two straight black lines bracketing the pupil rotating slowly.

Tokimi wishes her clansmen could be a little less _dramatic_ about completely losing their shit. Yes, betrayal is a _terrible_ thing, but this? This is _excessive_.

"Look, I don't care who that was or why you did it," she says frankly, "that's a problem for the clan courts. I just want to make sure the baby's okay. Will you let me do that?" Her uncle's always been very clear that the job of the police force is to de-escalate, _not_ to judge. Judging is the duty of the Clan Heads or their representatives; the Police are there to break up fights, prevent further damage, calm nerves and assure everybody that they _will_ be heard.

The wani does not step back, but its posture settles slightly. Tokimi takes this as permission and crouches down, half-crawling towards the baby –knees bent and poised so as to launch herself up and away should anything go wrong– and very carefully tugs the swaddled bundle out from under her cousin's crocodilian lower jaw.

The baby seems fine to a superficial check –all police learn the yin diagnostic– and then Tokimi realises that for an infant Kurama, this child looks a _lot_ like her baby brother Kichō did when he was a month or so old; the Kurama generally go for lighter, browner hair colours than the Uchiha's common blue-black, and non-Uchiha babies usually have blue or brown eyes at this age, not ink-black.

She glances at the wani, at the mangled corpse lying within arm's reach –female, recently pregnant by what she can see of the mangled body through the gaping and torn kimono– and dares to turn across the street to where Torifu and his partner are firmly keeping incautious bystanders contained.

"Do we have an ID on our victim?" She asks him, using the speaker seals so as not to broadcast her inquiry to all and sundry.

"Kurama Shinonome; the baby is her new daughter Kanatoko," Torifu replies at once. "When I asked about next of kin they mentioned her parents, but clammed up when I asked about the baby's father."

Shinonome, whom Tokimi's younger brother Kōki had been very smitten with until suddenly ending the relationship last spring and refusing to discuss why. Sukumo had been rather worried about him in her quiet, observant way, and had spent four months dragging him along to her calligraphy classes and making him help out after Madara-ji-sama temporarily banned him from missions following a near-miss. It had helped a lot.

Tokimi had thought there'd been a bad break-up, possibly Shinonome refusing to leave her clan when her otōto proposed marriage, but had not expected _this_. Every woman in Konoha is provided with a contraception seal upon reaching fourteen, which they can activate and de-activate at will; accidental pregnancies are not _possible_ , something which has been thoroughly tested by a great many people.

She rocks from side to side, trying to soothe the unfortunate evidence of potential bloodline theft. This may well go down as completely justified murder, but that is no excuse to skimp on proper procedure along the way.

"Sukumo-chan, _really_."

Tokimi twists, as does the wani: Oba-sama is standing in the middle of the main street, her everyday kimono patterned with ragged arrays of geometric shapes almost like moth wings, all in shades of brown and gold with white accents, shibori-marked indigo dōnuki peeking out at the collar and cuffs, belted by an obi in rich green embroidered with silvery frost patterns. Her rigid fan is held loosely in her right hand, the edge of the swallow-painted paper curve just tapping her chin, and her elegantly-styled hair bears only a few faint streaks of silver, which always makes Tokimi think of _kintsugi_.

She doesn't look like a lady who is nearly fifty-two; Madara-ji-sama is considerably greyer and regularly cracks jokes about his wife's apparent agelessness.

"I do understand," Oba-sama adds, voice softening, "but I trust you've noticed by now that this hasn't made the situation _better_."

The wani makes a deep rumbling sound, gaze dropping.

"Tokimi-kun, would you accompany us back up to the compound since imprisonment is not going to be conventionally possible for some time?" Oba-sama's eyes fall to the baby, which is quieting in response to Tokimi's soothing. "I will of course _not_ attempt to take custody of the baby, but since it clearly _was_ what motivated the transformation it should be kept close until my daughter has calmed down again."

"I should come too, Uchiha-sama," Danzo says firmly from behind Tokimi. "Police partners are required to stay within sight of one another while on-duty."

"Then we shall not leave until others arrive to relieve you of your other duties, Danzo-kun," Oba-sama agrees pleasantly, fan rising to cover her mouth. "Tokimi-kun, can you see where the rest of my daughter's clothing went?" Oba-sama calls almost everybody her children's age or younger 'kun' and isn't going to stop just because her oldest son is nearly thirty with two children of his own.

Glancing around, Tokimi locates a pair of sandals, a cream and orange chrysanthemum-and-bamboo patterned obi and a pair of hair-sticks among the iron-and-rot-scented detritus, all smeared with red, brown and unidentifiable dark fleshy blobs. "Some of it, Oba-sama." There are no tabi or under-layers.

"She'll still be wearing the rest." Oba-sama moves closer, geta quiet on the packed stone. "Oh dear, _what_ a mess. I won't make you wash them yourself, Sukumo-chan, since it is the first time." The implication being, that if there _is_ next time then Tokimi's cousin will spend the aftermath bent over a sink or washtub trying to get bloodstains out of silk.

It's an eminently practical threat. _Tokimi_ has struggled with lifting bloody smears from the silk lining on her coat cuffs and that is hard enough even with how they are sealed against staining, but _this_ much silk? All soaked in gore and other things besides? Oba-sama will be paying the laundresses extra if they manage to salvage _anything at all_. Never mind the tears in the kimono that will need to be cunningly sewn and then embroidered over to hide the join if it is ever to be worn as a top layer again...

A week later all the Kurama elders and a further fifteen adult clansmen are executed; Tokimi can't say she's surprised. Had they _really_ thought that hiding this was the right idea? If Shinonome had come up with this idea all by herself they should have denounced her at once and handed her over to Otōsan, as he is the Lineage Head the offence was committed against; if it had been the elders' idea on the other hand then _somebody_ should have pointed out that acting against one's liege was treasonable and this _counted_. Tokimi can't understand how they thought they would _ever_ get away with this; she is also privately, vindictively pleased that Sukumo is not even censured for her actions.

Her cousin is helping Kōki to parent his unexpected new daughter; Tokimi has money on her little brother _finally_ noticing that his two-years-older cousin considers him her most precious person within the next year. Hopefully he'll propose in a timely manner, even though that will mean possibly stepping down as Yatagarasu Heir in favour of Kichō now that Sukumo is Toyotama Heir; it's not like her brother ever really _wanted_ to be Lineage Head. Kichō's got their mother's confidence though and is doing well in his studies, so he'll manage those duties just fine.

* * *

"But, but! I'm only twenty-five!"

Madara can't help his fond smile. "Shirakami, I was twenty-one and my father had to pour several years of necessary education directly into mine and Izuna's brains with his sharingan as he lay dying. You've learned everything in good time; you're already running the Outguard with Shinmoe, Makoto, Naka-Fishtail and Kujū. This is just making things official." Madara's even imparted a good number of historical sharingan memories regardless; Sukumo's genjutsu seals have let him archive the rest against future need.

"Chichi-ue!"

"Your mother and I are not going anywhere," Madara points out gently. "Just moving into the west wing with Tobirama, so you and Maya can have the main hall to yourselves for when your child is born. We'll be here to talk to if you ever need advice, but I know you _can_ do this, Shirakami. Takahara's there to advise you on politics and you _know_ Mitama took over Homeguard matters seven years ago so your uncle Minakata could spend more time with his children and mourn his mother and brother." The brief, brutally intense war against Earth and Lightning had started with multiple clay bombs exploding in the middle of the village, killing elders, warriors and police alike as they desperately shielded civilians and children, but had ended decisively barely fourteen months later with Hidaka and his officers demonstrating that police action was _vastly_ superior to warfare when it came to putting a decisive end to hostilities. The Water and Wind shinobi who'd joined the war alongside Fire had been extremely impressed.

They still lost so many though. Hijiri and Kanmuri on that bloody noon, Otofuke and Satomi to assassination on the road between Wind and Earth as they returned from a mission on the same day, then Eniwa, Naosuke, Tomamu, Naka-hawknose, Shironushi and so many other seasoned warriors to the battlefields before those going through the new police field-training were ready for deployment; Tōka and Chika, Tobirama's cousin and his former bride, are just two more names on that long, long list. Sarutobi Nisuke and his brother Sasuke are also dead, as is Nisuke's oldest Kagetaka, so young Sadayū had to step up as clan head at twenty-four. Sasuke's son Hiruzen almost got himself killed in holding action alongside Uchiha Memuro, Kurama Sekiran, Aburame Pata and Inuzuka Obito, caught near the Hot Water border until Izuna personally led a mixed warrior and policing force to rescue them; Memuro managed to hold Hiruzen's shattered ribcage together so he didn't suffocate before more medics arrived, but it was a damn near thing.

It was Shironushi dying that did for Ohabari-oba; she did not last the week.

Shirakami bites his lower lip, which is frankly adorable despite him being taller _and_ broader than Madara these days. His main weapon is an ōdachi-length nagamaki, although he's equally brilliant with wire and fire jutsu. Madara knows Kita finds it rather delightful how her third son looks like her father writ large, towering over everybody else in the clan bar Mitama's wife Dene. Shirakami's own wife Maya, Yōko's daughter, barely comes up to the top of his shoulder; they're an adorable couple.

"Really?" His son asks eventually, voice small.

Madara softens. "Really, Shira-kun. I have every faith in you." He's slowing down, not much just yet but he can feel it in his bones. He can't quite keep up with his eyes anymore, his bones and scars ache when wet weather comes in and his hair is now solidly grey. He's fifty-seven, with six grandchildren and another three on the way –Sukumo is also expecting after marrying Kōki last autumn and Adatara has just confessed to being pregnant– and really, he's tired. Izuna's already handed over political responsibilities to Takahara, although he still hosts events sometimes; Minakata and his wife Fumi celebrated his stepping down from Homeguard head in favour of Mitama by having another two children –eighteen-year-old Kotachi-kun and fourteen-year-old Tsumashima-chan have been joined by six-year-old Tagitsu-chan and four-year-old Tagori-chan– and even Hidaka, who's still in his early forties, is starting to look around for a likely young clansman to succeed him as Police Chief.

Adatara is pregnant by Shibuki, but both have made it clear they're _not_ marrying –in fact Shibuki is currently _back_ in Water Country doing who-knows-what– and she is entirely preoccupied with coat-making; what with so many large families in the clan now and so much silk and wealth, they've changed the rules slightly so it's not just the Amaterasu Lineage where more than Head and Heir can have patchwork coats. Now all siblings and children of a Lineage Head get them upon turning sixteen.

Ashitaka is a wild warrior child, seventeen years old and currently out terrorising smugglers along the southern coast with her squad. She probably _will_ settle at some point, but it doesn't seem likely to be any time soon. Minami meanwhile is giving everybody headaches by being a strong Water Elemental and looking far _too_ much like Tobirama while having _all_ of his mother's quiet wickedness. Admittedly his sisiter-in-law Midori's youngest Bizan is _also_ water-natured, implying that it might in fact be something that pops up regularly in the Toyotama Lineage, but combined with Minami's looks… well. He's doing very well in Outguard training, already being partnered regularly with Nara Yasumi as they work very well together indeed. Somewhat unorthodox from what Madara's heard from Hikaku, who still supervises Outguard training despite having retired from active duty, but very effective.

Megata is also water-natured and has apprenticed herself to a potter; she mainly uses her affinity for ink-painting and calligraphy, scorning brushes entirely, and is determinedly learning to use it to shape wet clay as well. Her work is very beautiful and Madara has many fine examples to show off, including a wall scroll of the willow by the pond covered in an unseasonably late spring snow and a slightly lopsided trio of everyday teacups that were her first fired pieces. Toyouke is still in school –she's only eleven– and has made fast friends with a Mizuchi in the year above her; Madara suspects she's attached, but that's no great hardship. Young Orochimaru's a sweet boy and his mother was there on that terrible mission to Water chasing the bloodline thieves; Nure's a good swordswoman and has a delightfully biting wit.

Kita is still as smoothly graceful as ever, the only indicators of age the laugh-lines in the corners of her eyes and the scattered silver threads in her hair; she looks ten years younger than him, not just three. Tobirama with his already white hair is equally ageless, although he too is starting to move rather more cautiously in the mornings and contorts himself less outrageously when sleeping. He too has a grandchild: Makuma has married an Uzumaki and lives with her and their toddler daughter Inagami in Uzushio; Yukino has also married –to Tenshu of all people, who surprised everybody by deciding aged fourteen that he wanted to be a farmer– and Madara suspects there'll be more grandchildren there soon enough.

Izuna also has grandchildren: hilariously, Ena has married Madoma and they have two adorable little girls, who due to the various technicalities in the Uchiha-Senju treaty belong to both clans for all that their official paperwork only says 'Uchiha'. His little brother is _terribly_ grumpy about his bloodline mixing with 'the kudzu,' but he loves his daughter too much to refuse her anything. Shinmoe is yet to show a particular interest in anybody, but he's only twenty-five. There's time, so long as he's not set his heart on exceeding Kagutsuchi in the child stakes; the Kōjin Head and his wife Sayomi have ten living children already and seem determined to add to that number further!

His son sets his shoulders, bringing Madara back to the present. "I won't let you down, Chichi-ue," he promises, face set.

Madara hugs him. "You could never," he promises. "You've always given everything you have." Konohagakure is so much more than he'd ever hoped to be able to entrust to his children and he knows they will keep his dream of peace alive and flourishing.

* * *

Yoshino isn't sure what she wants to be when she grows up. She doesn't want to be a farmer like her father, but she doesn't have her mother's itchy feet either, not like her big sister does. Tameno was very clearly _born_ to be a shinobi, fierce and carefree and utterly confident in her skills.

Yoshino isn't. She's not _entirely_ terrible at the combat style that her mother teaches her when she's at home, but is rather better at the one her grandfather patiently walks her through on his weekly visits –which her father comments on when he sees her practicing, but she mostly ignores him because her father is a farmer not a shinobi, not even a retired shinobi– and she's okay with Earth jutsu and genjutsu and wire. Grandfather gets her the good Uchiha battle-wire and helps her refine her control enough to make it dance around her, pressing a finger to her lips when she asks where he learned Uchiha tricks and gently making her promise not to teach anybody else.

"My spouse agreed I could teach you, Yoshino-chan, because you are my granddaughter," he tells her, narrow and faded reddish lines on his face barely noticeable. Those happen sometimes when Senju and Hatake blood mix; she's seen brighter ones on her cousin Jiraya, whose Senju mother turned down the offer of marriage from his Hatake father because she didn't want to move to Sora-ku and he was too restless to stay in the village. "These are clan secrets, so never tell a soul."

Her grandpa wears the uchiwa, even though he's obviously a Hatake. He only _ever_ wears the uchiwa. Yoshino knows she's got no Uchiha blood at all, so grandfather must have remarried after grandmother died in the war. Well, the first war; there's been another one since then –technically two, but there was only about a year between them and her history sensei says those two wars were over the same things and that matters weren't resolved until after the second half-war so they count as one war with a pause in the middle– but not as many people died in the second war. Lots of people got taken hostage and there was a lot of ransoming people back and forth as well as raiding prison facilities, but nowhere near as many deaths as in the lists of the first war.

She gets very good with wire, practicing often. Her grandfather's wife gave permission for Yoshino to learn an Uchiha clan secret even though she isn't Uchiha, so she needs to honour that. She's technically a Senju, but a lot of older Senju think farmers aren't _real_ clansmen and most of her father's friends are called things like Haruno, Sawada, Inada, Tagawa and Imano. They call him 'Kinokawa,' so when he signs her up at school she begs that she be allowed to be Kinokawa Yoshino, not Senju Yoshino, and he sighs and agrees.

Nobody's looking at Kinokawa Yoshino like they look at Senju Kabema, the new Senju Head's son; like they're trying to work out if he'll be loyal like his late uncle Tsunama-sama or a traitor like his grandfather Hashirama. Lots of adults look sideways at Tamayama-sama because he looks so much like his traitor father, but _her_ father says Tamayama-sama was only five when Hashirama died, so it's not fair to judge him for it.

Yoshino can accept that, but 'not fair' isn't stopping anybody else. It doesn't help that Tamayama-sama inherited because Nawaki-kun was only fourteen when his father died, and while Nawaki-kun's big sister Tsunade-san _could_ have inherited –she was twenty-two– the rest of the Senju objected to being led by a medic, even a medic as brilliant as Tsunade-san. Which is very stupid indeed and one more reason for Yoshino to not have 'Senju' on any of her official paperwork.

There are some fun people in her shinobi skills class; a half-dozen Uzumaki since Uzushio was badly damaged in the recently-ended war, so Shirakami-sama opened the Konohagakure School and Academy to them for as long as they need it, three Hatake, her not-Senju cousin Sawada Mebuki, an Inuzuka, a Shiranui and two Uchiha. Fifteen in all; their sensei, Uchiha Kagami, smiles at them, takes all their names and explains what they will be learning in the coming years, how to ask for extra help or advanced lessons and how they have to keep up with their classroom studies in order to be allowed to graduate in six years' time.

He also talks about some of the other apprenticeships and professions a person can pursue that involve chakra; Yoshino resolves to pay extra attention when those lessons come up. She still doesn't know what she wants to be, after all. She knows she could be a shinobi, but she isn't sure she'd be a particularly _good_ one.

She's not worried about falling behind in classroom studies; Grandfather taught her kanji and says her penmanship is very good for her age. He teaches advanced calligraphy one day a week at the mature student classes in the Uchiha Guest Hall, so he would know.

* * *

Sakumo is absolutely at his wits' end. His son is almost six, still two years too young for the Academy, but he soaks up his preliminary lessons like a little sponge and is already in the intermediate classes at the schoolhouse, learning kanji alongside the ten-year-olds. He's beating his ten-year-old cousins in spars half the time as well, which isn't doing him any favours; on days like this Sakumo wishes it was still considered acceptable to pack up your small child and take them on circuit for a few years. His wife also rejected the suggestion of apprenticing Kakashi to a cousin in Sora-ku, wanting to keep him close so he can meet his new sibling when they're born.

Kakashi's _brilliant_. He's also horribly bored, which no amount of mushroom-dancing and calligraphy practice is going to fix, but Sakumo has a toddler daughter and a pregnant wife at home and his own responsibilities as both a Konoha shinobi and a Hatake Wolf Summoner besides; he _can't_ spend all his time coming up with new things to teach his son.

"Hatake."

Sakumo crashes back into reality and bows, mortified at having been caught daydreaming by the Uchiha Outguard Head. "My apologies, Uchiha-sama!"

"It must be something serious to distract you from this investigation." Sakumo cringes as on his right Sakin-san glares in annoyance at having his mission disrespected.

Shirakami-sama is right, this _is_ a very serious investigation: the Ichibi is missing. Sakin-san's mother is from Konoha's bunraku clan, the Ichikawa, so he was sent to request aid from them when the wind-riders brought the news to the metal-singers from the deep desert, and the Ichikawa directed him to take the matter to the Uchiha. Satetsu-sama of the metal-singers may have sent his nephew to Konoha, but he has already ventured out into the trackless wastes to see if he can find a trail.

None of Wind's shinobi _like_ the mad bijū that haunts their home, but they recognise that the Ichibi is most of what stands between their daimyo and their own subjugation. That Shirakami-sama and Takahara-sama are choosing to support the metal-singers in this says much; then again, Shirakami-sama calls the Sanbi, the Gobi _and_ the Nanabi 'friend,' presented to them as a child by his infamously fearless mother, so perhaps it is not _that_ surprising.

"My most sincere apologies," he repeats, bowing more deeply.

"Come, Sakumo, tell me what troubles you," the Uchiha Outguard head says gently. "It will not do for you to be distracted on this mission and whatever it is, I am sure a solution can be found."

Sakumo winces. "My son is… far _too_ intelligent to be left to his own devices, Uchiha-sama," he confesses quietly. "But my wife is pregnant, my daughter is a toddler and Kakashi-kun has already antagonised all of his cousins." He would leave the boy with Dai, except that if he does _that_ there's a good chance Kakashi would murder his best friend's son somehow before he got back.

"Your son is… five," Shirakami-sama says, frowning pensively.

"Yes, Uchiha-sama. He's already in the intermediate classes at school and is learning taijutsu almost faster than I can teach him. Basic Elemental manipulation as well." At this point Sakumo will gladly take any help he can get.

The Outguard Head smiles at him. "Well it just so happens that I have a dangerously brilliant five-year-old niece and a hellion seven-year-old daughter who are in cahoots with my twin hellion seven-year-old nephews, so adding one more tiny whirlwind to the mix will not rock the boat overmuch. Bring your son up to the Clan Hall before you leave tomorrow and I'll introduce you both; he can visit every day, give your wife a rest."

Shirakami-sama sounds like he is cheerfully courting disaster, but Sakumo will try _anything_ at this point. "Hai, Uchiha-sama."

"Excellent! Then let us go back over the details your squad will need before heading into Wind."

Sakumo's current squad comprises Ishikawa Sumi –whose son Sasori is twelve and likely to surpass even her impressive puppetry skills– Senju Mito's granddaughter Yamanaka Setsumi, Uchiha Oakan whose son Obito is Kakashi's age, and Uchiha Nakano-inkfingers; they're strongly geared towards investigation and information-gathering with a side of crowd control and heavy-duty barrier fūinjutsu. Shirakami-sama's choice makes perfect sense for bijū-hunting; Sakumo just hopes Kakashi does not terminally antagonise the man's daughter while he is away.

It is a _horrendous_ mission. They do catch up with Satetsu in time to save him from the fūinjutsu specialist he was losing against –just; Nakano drags the man off and spends half an hour swearing vituperatively in the pop-up medical tent as the battle rages on around him– and also just in time to discover that the madman has somehow sealed the bijū _inside himself_. Possibly, going by his ranting, at the Wind Daimyo's behest, which is an exploding tag Sakumo would rather like to _avoid_ having to throw himself upon. As it is Setsumi engages the man in a terrifying long-distance fūinjutsu battle as Sumi and Oakan act as bait and Sakumo fights shoulder-to-shoulder with Sakin, wolves, chakra sabre and whirling gold dust all forcing their opponent to divide his focus until Setsumi can unravel the seals keeping the bijū contained.

Then they grab Nakano and Satetsu and run like hell, because the Ichibi is _furious_. Run in entirely the wrong direction, in fact: they end up in the western scrublands, because that was the direction Sakin picked and he was leading the escape. They finally stop in a metal-singer camp where Nakano finishes gluing Satetsu back together with chakra, fūinjutsu and spite, Sakumo finds out what Sakin's actual _name_ is –Rasa, as it happens– and Setsumi gets into a very involved discussion with a couple of weavers while Sumi gossips in buraku dialect and Oakan lies down in the shade under an awning and tries not to faint from heatstroke and chakra exhaustion.

They don't chance the desert on their way home; instead they continue west into Sand Country, then north and east through the myriad vassal-states between Wind and Earth. It takes a full two weeks to make the journey covertly –all the _more_ important with what news is coming out of Wind right now– and by the time they pass under Konohagakure's torii Sakumo has been away for well over a month. Goodness knows what Kakashi will have got up to in that time.

Except it seems that he's made a friend. Several friends, Sakumo amends, gut sinking in trepidation as the elderly Uchiha with a waist-length shock of pure white hair and a topknot, wearing a well-fitted kimono in faintly iridescent pale green silk brocade, levers himself carefully up from his zabuton. The no-less-aged Hatake wearing deep grey in the corner with the much tidier topknot continues to doze, two snow leopards bracketing him and propping him up, fine and faded reddish lines painted up either side of his jaw almost to his cheekbones and a third shorter one bisecting his chin.

That is _definitely_ Tobirama-sama. The famous former Senju looks almost _too_ much like Uchiha Minami, Shirakami-sama's younger brother –father of Kakashi's new friend Nishimi-chan– for it to be a coincidence, despite their scents and chakra having nothing in common beyone elemental affinity and the superficial sameness that comes from a shared diet and spending time together.

"Tōsan, this is Madara-sama!" Kakashi chirps quietly, tugging his hand and dragging him further into the room, steps measured to account for the very fine miniature kimono in deep green brocaded silk that he is wearing. "Madara-sama, this is my Otōsan, Hatake Sakumo!"

Sakumo hadn't even realised Madara-sama was still _alive_. Which was stupid of him in retrospect; if Konohagakure's founder had died there would have been a _massive_ public funeral.

"A pleasure to meet the father of such a thoughtful and perceptive young man," Madara-sama says, meeting Sakumo's eyes with a smile that silently acknowledges both Kakashi's brilliance and his youthful innocence. "Do stay a while; my wife has promised Kakashi-kun a tea ceremony today and we are going over the various steps and their purpose."

Sakumo make an inquiring noise, which prompts Kakashi to eagerly repeat everything he's learned so far. He's never seen his son so animated; usually Kakashi is bored, defensive or sullen when he's not ferociously focused. Settling to one side of the table, Sakumo notices Tobirama-sama open his eyes –sleepy breathing and mellow chakra not faltering in the slightest– and smirk faintly over Kakashi's head before relaxing back into apparent unconsciousness.

Sitting in a room with two attentive legendary shinobi is somewhat nerve-racking, but Kakashi's eagerness and Madara-sama's indulgence lull him into a degree of complacency until the shōji open again and Kita-sama steps into the room, her kimono a dusky wisteria shade and her arms cradling a box of tea utensils, simply styled hair still a rich black barely streaked with silver.

Sakumo is _not_ practiced at tea ceremony, but he does know how it goes; he stands to shift the table out of the way, then removes himself to the wall alongside Tobirama-sama –who is now sitting forwards and paying attention, idly petting both leopards as he does so– as Kita-sama directs Kakashi to sit beside Madara-sama, lifts up a section of the tatami and floor beneath to reveal a fire pit and begins the ritual of tea.

Kita-sama is a true master of tea: her calmly relaxed focus fills the room, so clear that even Kakashi can feel it. Sakumo watches his son slow to match the pace set, observing every effortlessly smooth movement and responding to the various ritual phrases in soft, measured tones. It is just a chakai, but it is still by far the most beautiful one Sakumo has ever seen.

His son is first guest at a tea ceremony held by Uchiha Kita-sama, the Bijū-Friend, with Uchiha Madara, the Hokage, as second guest. This is not at all what he was expecting when Shirakami-sama agreed to host his son while he was away.

And yet his son is happy. That is well worth the discomfort of sitting among legends.

* * *

Yoshino hasn't seen her mother in years, not since she moved into a flat in Konohagakure rather than travel into the village from her father's farm every day. She also hasn't seen her grandfather anywhere at all except at their weekly meetings in the Uchiha Guest Hall, where he makes her tea and they sit quietly together, enjoying each-other's presence, and she sometimes tells him a bit about what missions she's been on lately.

So it is a shock to arrive home after a day in the village, Shikaku walking beside her as he always does now, and find her grandfather sitting at her table drinking tea alongside a leopard easily as large as he is, which is lapping up its own tea out of a shallow dish.

"Gaisofu?"

He smiles at her –at them both– and for the first time in her life Yoshino _sees_ the quiet feline threat underlying the expression that her father occasionally complained about. "Mago-chan. Please introduce your young man."

Shikaku steps out from behind her and bows, deep and respectful. "Tobirama-sama."

Yoshino experiences a moment of complete surprise. _Tobirama-sama_? Her gaisofu, this quiet, gentle man who has only recently retired from teaching calligraphy and whom she has never seen so much as raise his _voice_ , let alone a weapon, is the infamous _Senju Tobirama_?

Her grandfather chuckles. "Ah, Yoshino-chan; so like your mother in overlooking all the things that don't interest you. And so like your father's mother in determinedly forging your own path, regardless of both obstacles and offered assistance."

Yoshino feels herself blush. "You never _said_!"

He smirks, all leopard, as the faintly ruddy lines on his face widen and brighten to vivid blood red, redder than she's ever seen them in all those years of taijutsu lessons as a child and weekly cups of tea in the shade of the Uchiha Guest Hall, where the Uchiha clansmen and clanswomen refilling the kettle for them call him 'Bira-sensei'. She had thought that _was_ his name! "You did not ask, mago-chan. You were not interested in the past doings of your aged gaisofu, who only teaches calligraphy."

"Gaisofu!"

"You are past twenty and never put together the pieces, though they were all laid out before you, Yoshino-chan." His tone gentles. "Now do introduce your young man, so he can explain to me why he is not courting you in the proper fashion."

Yoshino swallows hard, abruptly and acutely aware that she hasn't told her father about Shikaku either. How and where did her grandfather find out? Tobirama-sama was a fabled sensor, mentioned as being unmatched in range and sensitivity to this day, so maybe that is how? "Gaisofu, this is Shikaku, formerly of the Nara clan; he intends to marry me, but his clan does not approve of his choice. Shikaku, this is my gaisofu, Uchiha Tobirama." Her grandfather is Uchiha; has always been Uchiha. How could she not realise who he _was_ when Senju Tobirama's adoption into the Uchiha Clan is something she learned about in her history _and_ politics classes! Yes, the facial markings in the official pictures are much more vivid than what she's used to seeing on her grandfather's face and he is so much _younger_ in them, but that's still no excuse! She _knows_ about chakra markings!

"How unfortunate for them," her grandfather says dryly. "Come and sit, both of you."

Yoshino sits opposite the leopard, murmuring, "Good evening, Tōnari-bā," as she does so.

"Good evening, Yoshino-chan," Tōnari-bā replies comfortably as Shikaku sits carefully opposite her grandfather. "Have you had good hunting?" The leopard's gaze strays to her fiancé.

"Yoshino-chan, perhaps instead you could show Tōnari around your neighbourhood while I discuss matters with Shikaku-kun."

"Gaisofu," Yoshino begins warningly, then remembers herself –and various previous arguments between her mother and her grandfather– and sighs. "If I don't you're just going to put silencing fūinjutsu on the table like you do at home, aren't you."

He smiles faintly at her, eyes bright and wicked. "My mago-chan knows me so well."

Yoshino heaves an irritated sigh. "I am going to end up being the Nara Clan Head's wife no matter _what_ his elders think of me, aren't I?"

"You deserve nothing less," her grandfather says calmly, "and while your young man may prefer to escape his duties, I would much rather you have the support of a clan upon your marriage. So unless you would prefer I approach your father's side of the family–"

"No." Tsunade _is_ Senju head now, finally, belatedly and at her younger brother's insistence, but the clan is still a morass of disagreements and prejudice and adding Shikaku's brilliant mind to the turmoil will _not_ make things better. She knows very little about her father's kin; her fiancé knows far more about the Nara. If her shinobi training has taught her anything, it is that information is power.

"–then the Nara it will be." Her grandfather smiles at Shikaku, expression thin; her fiancé shifts uncomfortably. "Enjoy your walk, mago-chan."

Yoshino leaves, Tōnari-bā at her side. _Men_!

* * *

Kita sits by the futon, listening to her husband's laboured breathing as she writes a letter to Shibuki-kun, who now lives in Water Country with his wife and their teenage sons. It has been a very difficult winter for her husband; difficult for her and Tobirama too, but Madara has struggled the most and even though it is now spring his difficulties continue. Izuna died two years ago –slipped on a patch of ice one cold morning and broke his hip and thigh, then never recovered– and her beloved has not been quite the same since.

She smoothes her kimono over her knees again, fingers playing gently over the mandarin duck pattern woven into the soft slate blue background. This is the first kimono her husband gave her after their wedding and she has worn it regularly ever since. Perhaps not as often as he would have _liked_ in those first few years of their youth, but her care and patience have born fruit: it is still just about wearable almost sixty years on. But only just about; it is wearing thin in several places and she has had to shorten the sleeves so as to replace the collar.

Madara laughed when she put it on this morning, insisting hoarsely that she is no less lovely now than she had been at twenty. She loves him so _much_.

Tobirama is also sprawled on the futon, back to back with her husband and wearing a kimono in rich ruddy brown with a subtle pine pattern. He's outlived Tōka, most of his cousins and nephews and even Mito, Uzumaki though she was; Kita suspects the lost of her husband wore on Mito, both for its own sake and the manner of her losing him, and burying first her oldest then her youngest son was the last straw. Both Tobirama's own children live yet though, which she knows is most of what keeps him going these days. That and the prospect of great-grandchildren from Yoshino-chan, who is pregnant; terrorising the Nara clan with his regular visits has given him a new lease of life despite his being past eighty now. And yes it _is_ terrorising, with a side of deliberate provocation; taking leopards to meet deer can be nothing less than that.

"Beloved," her husband rasps, "my sight is going."

It won't be long now then. "Is there anything you would ask of me, before I have Takada-kun fetch everyone?" Shirakami's secondborn and oldest son is currently on duty in the corridor connecting their wing with the main hall, likely losing a scroll game to Kakashi-kun, who found out how ill Madara was last month and has been resolutely hovering ever since. He's only thirteen, the poor child; her husband will be his first death. The rest of their extended family is also keeping close to the compound, not wishing to miss the opportunity to say goodbye. Even Toshi-ko is back from the court, and Takahara and his wife –formerly Kurama Kasagumo, now simply Uchiha Kasa– have indefinitely delayed their own yearly journey to represent the Uchiha to the rest of Fire's nobility so as to spend more time with his father.

Madara looks at her, Izuna's eyes faintly clouded as the Shinigami approaches. "Will I find you in Yomi once you pass, beloved? Or will you not come there?"

Her husband sees far better than Izuna ever gave him credit for. Then again, Izuna saw from the mind; Madara sees from the heart.

"I will not be found in Yomi, husband; I came from elsewhere, and there I will return."

"How are we to follow you there?" Tobirama asks as he laboriously levers himself upright, as though that is the most natural thing to want in the world.

Kita swallows hard, carefully setting her brush aside and breathing through the sudden desire to cry. "I will tell you both," she promises, "and then the children shall come and keep us company until you leave us, husband." She forces a smile. "I am sure you will find _that_ place far more amusing an afterlife than Yomi, beloved." Her children know where she'll be going; she raised them in her faith as best she could. Madara though has never asked before and neither has Tobirama; she had come to believe they never would.

"How could I not, when I know my wife will be joining me there?"

Kita does cry then. She cries as she tells him about the god she has quietly followed all of both her lives, who asked her permission before reincarnating her here and has subtly supported her in all her endeavours. She cries as Madara and Tobirama both commit themselves, and as she calls for Takada to fetch everyone and say goodbye.

She cries harder as Madara breathes his last surrounded by children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews and nieces, in-laws and friends of all ages, and knows to her bones that she and Tobirama will not outlive him for very long.

She does not mind it overmuch. She will try to hang on until after Yoshino has given birth to her twins though; Tobirama should meet his own great-grandchildren.


End file.
